l '    y 

Pembroke  High  School 

Pembroke,  Virginia 


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ROLLO  IN 

S  TVITZERLAND 


BY 
JACOB  ABBOTT 


WITH  ILL  USTRA  TIONS 


CHICAGO 

UNION  SCHOOL  FURNISHING  CO. 

PUBLISHERS 


£Ua '     &ry      . 

Pembroka  High  School 

Pembroke,  Virginia 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


http://www.archive.org/details/rolloinswitzerlaOabbo 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER.  PAGE. 

I.     Getting  a  Passport 5 

II.     Crossing  the  Frontier 22 

III.  Basle 37 

IV.  The  Diligence 46 

V.     Ride  to  Berne 56 

VI.     The  Valley  of  the  Aar 66 

VII.     Interlachen 79 

VIII.     Lauterbunnen 94 

IX.     The  Wengern  Alp no 

X.     Going  down  the  Mountain 137 

XI.     Glaciers 147 

XII.     Rollo  a  Courier. 158 

XIII.     Conclusion , 179 


953477 


PRINCIPAL  PERSONS  OF  THE  STORY. 

Rollo:  twelve  years  of  age. 

Mr.   and  Mrs.    Holiday:  Rollo's  father  and  mother, 

traveling  in  Europe. 
Thanny:  Rollo's  younger  brother. 
Jane:  Rollo's  cousin,  adopted  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Holiday. 
Mr.  George:  a  young  gentleman,  Rollo's  uncle. 


ROLLO  IN   SWITZERLAND. 


CHAPTER  I. 

GETTING   A  PASSPORT. 

The  last  day  that  Rollo  spent  in  Paris,  before 
he  set  out  on  his  journey  into  Switzerland,  he 
had  an  opportunity  to  acquire,  by  actual  expe- 
rience, some  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  the 
passport  system. 

Before  commencing  the  narrative  of  the 
adventures  which  he  met  with,  it  is  necessary 
to  premise  that  no  person  can  travel  among  the 
different  states  and  kingdoms  on  the  continent 
of  Europe  without  what  is  called  a  passport. 
The  idea  which  prevails  among  all  the  govern- 
ments of  the  continent  is,  that  the  people  of 
each  country  are  the  subjects  of  the  sovereign 
reigning  there,  and  in  some  sense  belong  to 
him.  They  cannot  leave  their  country  with- 
out the  written  permission  of  the  government, 
nor  can  they  enter  any  other  one  without  show- 
ing this  permission  and  having  it  approved  and 
stamped  by  the  proper  officers  of  the  country 
to  which  they  wish  to  go.  There  are,  for 
example,  at  Paris,  ministers  of  all  the  different 
governments  of  Europe,  residing  in  different 
parts  of  the  city ;  and  whoever  wishes  to  leave 


6  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

France,  to  go  into  any  other  kingdom,  must 
first  go  with  his  passport  to  the  ministers  of 
the  countries  which  he  intends  to  visit  and  get 
them  to  put  their  stamp  upon  it.  This  stamp 
represents  the  permission  of  the  government 
whose  minister  affixes  it  that  the  traveler  may 
enter  the  territory  under  their  jurisdiction. 
Besides  this,  it  is  necessarjr  to  get  permission 
from  the  authorities  of  Paris  to  leave  the 
city.  Nobody  can  leave  France  without  this. 
This  permission,  too,  like  the  others,  is  given 
by  a  stamp,  upon  the  passport.  To  get 
this  stamp,  the  traveler  must  carry  or  send 
his  passport  to  the  great  central  police  office  of 
Paris,  called  the  prefecture  of  police.  Now, 
as  the  legations  of  the  different  governments 
and  the  prefecture  of  police  are  situated  at 
very  considerable  distances  from  each  other 
about  the  city,  and  as  it  usually  takes  some 
time  to  transact  the  business  at  each  office,  and 
especially  as  the  inexperienced  traveler  often 
makes  mistakes  and  goes  to  the  wrong  place, 
or  gets  at  the  right  place  at  the  wrong  hour,  it 
usually  requires  a  whole  day,  and  sometimes 
two  days,  to  get  his  passport  all  right  so  as  to 
allow  of  his  setting  out  upon  his  journey. 
These  explanations  are  necessary  to  enable  the 
reader  to  understand  what  I  now  proceed  to 
relate  in  respect  to  Rollo. 

One  morning,  while  Rollo  and  Jennie  were 
at  breakfast  with  their  father  and  mother, 
Rollo's  uncle  George  came  in  and  said  that  he 
had  concluded  to  go  and  make  a  little  tour  in 
Switzerland.     "I  shall  have  three  weeks,"  said 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  ' 

he,  "if  I  can  get  away  to-morrow,  and  that  will 
give  me  time  to  take  quite  a  little  run  among 
the  mountains.  I  have  come  now  to  see  if  you 
will  let  Rollo  go  with  me." 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  Rollo,  very  eagerly,  and 
rising  at  once  from  his  chair.  "Yes,  sir.  Let 
me  go  with  him.  That's  exactly  the  thing. 
Yes,  sir." 

"Have  you  any  objection?"  said  Mr.  Holi- 
day, quietly,  turning  toward   Rollo's   mother. 
"No,"    said   Mrs.    Holiday,    speaking,   how- 
ever,   in   a   very  doubtful  tone, — "no;  I  don't 
know  that  I  have — any  great  objection." 

Whatever  doubt  and  hesitation  Mrs.  Holiday 
might  have  had  on  the  subject  was  dispelled 
when  she  came  to  look  at  Rollo  and  see  how 
eager  and  earnest  he  was  in  his  desire  to  go. 
So  she  gave  her  definitive  consent. 

"How  long  do  you  think  you  will  be  gone?" 
said  Mr.   Holiday. 

"Three  weeks,  nearly,"  replied  Mr.  George. 
"Say  twenty  days." 

"And  how  much  do  you  suppose  it  will  cost 
you?"  asked  Mr.  Holiday. 

"I  have  made  a  calculation,"  said  Mr. 
George;  "and  I  think  it  will  cost  me,  if  I  go 
alone,  about  twenty-five  francs  a  day  for  the 
whole  time.  There  would,  however,  be  a  con- 
siderable saving  in  some  things  if  two  go 
together." 

"Then  I  will  allow  you,  Rollo, "  replied  Mr. 
Holiday,  looking  toward  Rollo,  "twenty-five 
francs  a  day  for  this  excursion.  If  you  spend 
any   more  than  that,   you  must  take  it  out  of 


8  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

your  past  savings.       If  you  do  not  spend  it  all, 
what  is  left  when  you  come  back  is  yours. " 

"Yes,  sir,'8  saidRollo.  "I  think  that  will  be 
a  great  plenty. ' ' 

"Twenty-five  francs  a  day  for  twenty  days," 
continued  Mr.  Holiday,  "is  five  hundred  francs. 
Bring  me  that  bag  of  gold,  Rollo,  out  of  my 
secretary.  Here  is  the  key." 
•  So  Rollo  brought  out  the  gold,  and  Mr.  Holi- 
day took  from  it  twenty-five  Napoleons. 
These  he  put  in  Rollo 's  purse. 

"There,"  said  Mr.  Holiday,  "that's  all  I  can 
do  for  you.  For  the  rest  you  must  take  care 
of." 

"How  long  will  it  take  you  to  pack  your 
trunk?"  said  Mr.  George. 

"Five  minutes,"  said  Rollo,  promptly,  stand- 
ing up  erect  as  he  said  it  and  buttoning  his 
jacket  up  to  chin. 

"Then  put  on  your  cap  and  come  with  me," 
said  Mr.  George. 

Rollo  did  so.  He  followed  Mr.  George  down- 
stairs to  the  door,  and  they  both  got  into  a  small 
carriage  which  Mr.  George  had  waiting  there 
and  drove  away  together  toward  Mr.  George's 
hotel. 

"Now,  Rollo,"  said  Mr.  George,  "I  have  got 
a  great  deal  to  do  to-day,  and  there  are  our 
passports  to  be  stamped.  I  wonder  if  you  could 
not  attend  to  that." 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "if  you  will  only  tell  me 
what  is  to  be  done. " 

"I  don't  myself  know  what  is  to  be  done," 
said     Mr.     George.       "That's  the    difficulty. 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  9 

And  I  have  not  time  to  find  out.  I  have  got 
as  much  as  I  can  possibly  do  until  four  o'clock-, 
and  then  the  office  of  the  prefecture  of  police  is 
closed.  Now,  if  you  can  take  the  passports  and 
find  out  what  is  to  be  done,  and  do  it,  then  we 
can  go  to-morrow ;  otherwise  we  must  wait  till 
next  day. ' ' 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,  "I'll  try.' 

"You  will  find  the  passports,  then,  on  my 
table  at  the  hotel.  I  am  going  to -get  out  at 
the  next  street  and  take  another  carriage  to  go 
in  another  direction.  You  can  keep  this  car- 
riage. " 

"Very  well,"  said  Rollo. 

"You  may  make  inquiries  of  anybody  you 
please,"  said  Mr.  George,  "except  your  father 
and  mother.  We  must  not  trouble  your  father 
with  any  business  of  any  kind  till  he  gets 
entirely  well;  and  your  mother  would  not 
know  anything  about  it  at  all.  Perhaps  the 
master  of  the  hotel  can  tell  you.  You  had 
better  ask  him,  at  any  rate.'1 

Here  Mr.  George  pulled  the  string  for  the 
carriage  to  stop,  as  they  had  arrived  at  the  cor- 
ner of  the  street  where  he  was  to  get  out.  The 
coachman  drew  up  to  the  sidewalk  and  stopped. 
Mr.  George  opened  the  door  and  stepped  out 
upon  the  curbstone,  and  then  said,  as  he  shut 
the  door, — 

"Well,  good  by,  Rollo.  I  hope  you  will  have 
good  luck.  But,  whatever  happens,  keep  a 
quiet  mind,  and  don't  allow  yourself  to  feel 
perplexed  or  troubled.  If  you  don't  succeed 
in  getting  the  passports  ready  to-day  we  can 


10  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

attend  to  them  to-morrow  and  then  go  the  next 
day,  which  will  answer  nearly  as  well." 

Then  directing  the  coachman  to  drive  to  the 
hotel,  Mr.  George  walked  rapidly  away. 

When  Rollo  reached  the  hotel  he  got  the  key 
of  his  uncle  George's  room,  at  the  porter's 
lodge,  and  went  immediately  up  to  see  if  the 
passports  were  there.  He  found  them,  as  his 
uncle  had  said,  lying  on  the  table. 

"Now,"  said  Rollo,  "the  first  thing  I'll  do 
is  to  find  Carlos  and  see  if  he  will  go  and  help 
me  get  the  passports  stamped."* 

So,  taking  the  passports  in  his  hand,  he  went 
along  the  corridor  till  he  came  to  the  door  lead- 
ing to  the  apartments  where  Carlos  lodged. 
There  was  a  bell  hanging  by  the  side  of  the 
door.  Rollo  pulled  this  cord,  and  presently  the 
courier  came  to  the  door.  Rollo  inquired  for 
Carlos,  and  the  courier  said  that  he  would  go 
and  get  him.  In  the  meantime  the  courier 
asked  Rollo  to  step  in  and  take  a  seat.  So 
Rollo  went  in.  The  room  that  he  entered  was 
a  small  one,  and  was  used  as  an  antechamber  to 
the  apartment;  and  it  was  very  neatly  and 
pleasantly  furnished  for  such  a  purpose.  There 
were  a  sofa  and  several  chairs,  and  maps  and 
pictures  on  the  walls,  and  a  table  with  writing 
materials  on  it  in  the  center.  Rollo  sat  down 
upon  the  sofa.     In  a  few  minutes  Carlos  came. 

*Carlos  was  a  Spanish  boy,  who  was  residing  at  this 
time  at  the  same  hotel  with  Mr.  George.  The  manner 
in  which  Rollo  became  acquainted  with  him  is  related 
in  Rollo  in  Paris.  Carlos  did  not  understand  English, 
nor  Rollo  Spanish ;  but  when  they  were  together  they 
Usually  kept  talking  all  the  time,  each  in  his  own  way. 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  11 

"Look  here!"  said  Rollo,  rising  when  Carlos 
came  in.  "See  these  passports!  We're  going 
to  get  them  stamped.  Will  you  go  with  me? 
I  have  got  a  carriage  at  the  door. ' ' 

Here  Rollo  made  a  sort  of  whirling  motion 
with  his  hand,  advancing  it  forward  at  the 
same  time  as  it  rolled,  to  indicate  the  motion 
of  a  wheel.  This  was  to  signify  to  Carlos  that 
they  were  going  in  a  carriage. 

All  that  Carlos  understood  was,  that  Rollo 
was  going  somewhere,  and  that  he  wished  him, 
Carlos,  to  go,  too.  He  seemed  very  much 
pleased  with  his  invitation,  and  went  eagerly 
back  into  the  inner  apartments.  He  returned 
in  very  few  minutes  with  his  cap  in  his  hand, 
evidently  all  ready  to  go. 

"Now,"  said  Rollo,  as  they  went  out  of  the 
antechamber  together,  "the  first  thing  is  to  go 
and  ask  the  master  of  the  hotel  what  we  are 
to  do." 

There  was  very  pleasant  little  room  on  the 
lower  floor,  on  one  side  of  the  archway  which 
formed  the  entrance  into  the  court  of  the  hotel 
from  the  street,  that  served  the  purpose  of  par- 
lor, sitting-room,  counting  room,  and  office. 
Thus  it  was  used  both  by  the  master  of  the 
hotel  himself  and  by  his  family.  There  was  a 
d^sk  at  one  side,  where  the  master  usually  sat, 
with  his  books  and  papers  before  him.  At  the 
other  side,  near  a  window,  his  wife  was  often 
seated  at  her  sewing;  and  there  were  fre- 
quently two  or  three  little  children  playing 
about  the  floor  with  little  wagons,  or  tops,  or 
other  toys.       Rollo  went  to  this  room,  occupy- 


12  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

ing  himself  as  he  descended  the  stairs  in  trying 
to  make  up  a  French  sentence  that  would  ask 
his  question  in  the  shortest  and  simplest  man- 
ner. 

He  went  in,  and,  going  to  the  desk,  held  out 
his  passports  to  the  man  who  was  sitting  there, 
and  said,  in  French, — 

"Passports.  To  Switzerland.  Where  to  go 
to  get  them  stamped?" 

"Ah,"  said  the  master  of  the  hotel,  taking 
the'  passports  in  his  hand.  "Yes,  yes,  yes. 
You  must  get  them  stamped.  You  must  go  to 
the  Swiss  legation  and  to  the  prefecture  of 
police. " 

Here  Rollo  pointed  to  a  piece  of  paper  that 
was  lying  on  the  desk  and  made  signs  of 
writing. 

"Ah,  yes,  yes,  yes,"  said  the  man.  "I  will 
write  you  the  address." 

So  the  man  took  a  piece  of  paper  and  wrote 
upon  the  top  of  it  the  words  "prefecture  of 
police,"  saying,  as  he  wrote  it,  that  every 
coachman  knew  where  that  was.  Then,  under- 
neath, he  wrote  the  name  of  the  street  and 
number  where  the  Swiss  legation  was;  and, 
having  done  this,  he  gave  the  paper  to  Rollo. 

Rollo  took  the  memorandum,  and,  thanking 
the  man  for  his  information,  led  Carlos  out  to 
the  carriage. 

"Come,  Carlos,"  said  he;  "now  we  are 
ready.  I  know  where  to  go;  but  I  don't  know 
at  all  what  we  are  to  do  when  we  get  there. 
But  then  we  shall  find  some  other  people  there. 


fcOLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  13 

I  suppose,  getting  their  passports  stamped; 
and  we  can  do  as  they  do." 

Rollo  had  learned  to  place  great  reliance  on 
the  rule  which  his  uncle  George  had  given  for 
his  guidance  in  traveling;  namely,  to  do  as  he 
saw  other  people  do.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  very  ex- 
cellent rule. 

Carlos  got  into  the  carriage;  while  Rollo, 
looking  upon  the  paper  in  order  to  be  sure  that 
he  understood  the  words  right,  said,  "To  the 
prefecture  of  police." 

The  coachman  said,  "Yes,  yes;"  and  Rollo 
got  into  the  coach.  The  coachman,  without 
leaving  his  seat,  reached  his  arm  down  and 
fastened  the  door  and  then  drove  away. 

He  drove  on  through  various  crowded  streets, 
which  seemed  to  lead  in  toward  the  heart  of  the 
city,  until  at  last  the  carriage  came  to  the  river. 
Rollo  and  Carlos  looked  out  and  saw  the 
bridges,  and  the  parapet  wall  which  formed  the 
river  side  of  the  street,  with  the  book  stalls, 
and  picture  stalls,  and  cake  and  fruit  booths 
which  had  been  established  along  the  side  of 
it,  and  the  monstrous  bathing  houses  which  lay 
floating  on  the  water  below,  all  gayly  painted 
and  adorned  with  flags  and  little  parterries  of 
flowers;  and  the  washing  houses,  with  their 
long  rows  of  windows,  down  close  to  the  water, 
all  filled  with  women,  who  were  washing  clothes 
by  alternately  plunging  them  in  the  water  of: 
the  river  and  then  banging  them  with  clubs. 
These  and  a  great  many  other  similar  objects 
attracted  their  attention  as  they  rode  along. 

If  the  reader  of  this  book  has  the  opportunity 


U  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

to  look  at  a  map  of  Paris,  he  will  see  that  the 
River  Seine,  in  passing  through  the  town, 
forms  two  channels,  which  separate  from  each 
other  so  as  to  leave  quite  a  large  island  between 
them.  This  island  is  completely  covered  with 
streets  and  buildings,  some  of  which  are  very 
ancient  and  venerable.  Here  is  the  great  Ca- 
thedral Church  of  Notre  Dame;  also  the  vast 
hospital  called  Hotel  Dieu,  where  twelve 
thousand  sick  persons  are  received  and  taken 
care  of  every  year.  Here  also  is  the  perfecture 
of  police— an  enormous  establishment,  with 
courts,  quadrangles  ranges,  offices,  and  officers 
without  number.  In  this  establishment  the 
records  are  kept  and  the  business  is  transacted 
relating  to  all  the  departments  of  the  police  of 
the  city;  so  that  it  is  of  itself  quite  a  little 
town. 

The  first  indication  which  Rollo  had  that  he 
had  arrived  at  the  place  was  the  turning  in  of 
the  coach  under  an  arch,  which  opened  in  the 
middle  of  a  very  sombre  and  antique-looking 
edifice.  The  carriage,  after  passing  through 
the  arch,  came  into  a  court,  where  there  were 
many  other  carriages  standing.  Soldiers  were 
seen  too,  some  coming  and  going  and  others 
standing  guard.  The  carriage  passed  through 
this  court,  and  then,  going  under  another  arch 
between  two  ponderous  iron  gates,  it  came  into 
another  court,  much  larger  than  the  first. 
There  were  a  great  many  carriages  in  this 
court,  some  moving  in  or  out  and  others  wait- 
ing. Rollo's  carriage  drove  up  to  the  farthest 
corner  of  the  court;  and  there  the  coachman 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  i5 

stopped  and  opened  the  door.  Rollo  got  out. 
Carlos  followed  him. 

"Where  do  you  suppose  we  are  to  go, 
Carlos?"  said  he.  "Stop;  I  can  see  by  the 
signs  over  the  doors.  Here  it  is.  'Passports.' 
This  must  be  the  place.     We  will  go  in  here." 

Rollo  accordingly  went  in,  Carlos  timidly 
following  him.  After  crossing  a  sort  of  pas- 
sage way,  he  opened  another  door,  which  ush- 
ered him  at  once  into  a  very  large  hall,  the 
aspect  of  which  quite  bewildered  him.  There 
were  a  great  many  desks  and  tables  about  the 
hall,  with  clerks  writing  at  them,  and  people 
coming  and  going  with  passports  and  permits 
in  their  hands.  Rollo  stepped  forward  into  the 
room,  surveying  the  scene  with  great  curiosity 
and  wonder,  when  his  attention  was  suddenly 
arrested  by  the  voice  of  a  soldier,  who  rose 
suddenly  from  his  chair,  and  said, — 

"Your  cap,  young  gentleman. " 

Rollo  immediately  recollected  that  he  had  his 
cap  on,  while  all  the  other  people  in  the  room 
were  uncovered.  He  took  his  cap  off  at  once, 
saying  to  the  soldier  at  the  same  time,  "Par- 
don, sir,"  which  is  the  French  mode  of  making 
an  apology  in  such  cases.  The  soldier  then 
resumed  his  seat,  and  Rollo  and  Carlos  walked 
on  slowly  up  the  hall. 

Nobody  took  any  notice  of  them.  In  fact, 
every  one  seemed  busy  with  his  own  concerns, 
except  that  in  one  part  of  the  room  there  were 
several  benches  where  a  number  of  men  and 
women  were  sitting  as  if  they  were  waiting  for 
something. 


i6  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

Rollo  advanced  toward  these  seats,  saying 
to  Carlos, — 

"Carlos,  let  us  sit  down  here  a  minute  or  two 
till  we  can  think  what  we  had  better  do.  We 
can  sit  here,  I  know.  These  benches  must  be 
for  anybody." 

As  soon  as  Rollo  had  taken  his  seat  and 
began  to  cast  his  eyes  about  the  room,  he 
observed  that  among  the  other  desks  there  was 
one  with  the  words,  "for  foreigners,"  upon  it, 
in  large,  gilt  letters. 

"Carlos,"  said  he,  pointing  to  it,  "that  must 
be  the  place  for  us.  We  are  foreigners:  let  us 
go  there.  We  will  give  the  passports  to  the 
man  in  that  little  pew." 

So  Rollo  rose,  and,  followed  by  Carlos,  he 
went  to  the  place.  There  was  a  long  desk, 
with  two  or  three  clerks  behind  it,  writing. 
At  the  end  of  this  desk  was  a  small  enclosure, 
where  a  man  sat  who  looked  as  though  he  had 
some  authority.  People  would  give  him  their 
passports,  and  he  would  write  something  on 
them  and  then  pass  them  over  to  the  clerks. 
Rollo  waited  a  moment  and  then  handed  his 
passports  in.  The  man  took  them,  looked  them 
over  and  gave  them  back  to  Rollo,  saying 
something  in  French  which  Rollo  did  not 
understand,  and  immediately  passed  to  the  next 
in  order. 

"What  did  he  say?"  said  Rollo,  turning  to 
Carlos. 

"What's  the  reason  he  won't  take  your  pass- 
ports?" said  Carlos. 

Although  Rollo  did  not  understand  what  the 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  17 

official  said  at  the  time  of  his  speaking,  still  the 
words  left  a  trace  upon  his  ear,  and  in  thinking 
upon  them  he  recalled  the  words  "American 
legation,"  and  also  the  word  "afterward." 
While  he  was  musing  on  the  subject,  quite  per- 
plexed, a  pleasant-looking  girl,  who  was  stand- 
ing there  waiting  for  her  turn,  explained  to 
him — speaking  very  slow  in  French,  for  she 
perceived  that  Rollo  was  a  foreigner — as  fol- 
lows : — 

"He  says  that  you  must  go  first  and  get  your 
passports  stamped  at  the  American  legation 
and  afterward  come  here." 

"Where  is  the  American  legation?"  said 
Rollo. 

"I  don't  know,"  said  the  girl. 

"Then  I'll  make  the  coachman  find  it  for 
me,"  said  Rollo.  "Come,  Carlos;  we  must  go 
back." 

So  saying,  he  thanked  the  girl  for  her  kind- 
ness, and  the  two  boys  went  out.  As  he  was 
going  out  Rollo  made  up  a  French  sentence  to 
say  to  the  coachman  that  he  must  drive  to  the 
American  legation,  and  that  he  must  find  out 
where  it  was  himself.  He  succeeded  in  com- 
municating these  directions  to  the  coachman, 
and  then  he  and  Carlos  got  into  the  carriage 
and  drove  away. 

The  coachman  had  some  difficulty  in  learning 
where  the  American  legation  was,  which  occa- 
sioned some  delay.  Besides,  the  distance  was 
considerable.  It  was  nearly  two  miles  to  the 
place  from  the  prefecture  of  police ;  so  that  it 
was    some   time   before   the   carriage   arrived 

2    Switzerland 


18  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

there.  In  fact,  Rollo  had  a  very  narrow  escape 
in  this  stage  of  the  affair;  for  he  arrived  at  the 
American  legation  only  about  five  minutes  be- 
fore the  office  was  to  be  closed  for  the  day. 
When  he  went  to  the  porter's  lodge  to  ask  if 
that  was  the  place  where  the  office  of  the  Amer- 
can  legation  was  held,  the  woman  who  kept  the 
lodge,  and  who  was  standing  just  outside  the 
door  at  the  time,  instead  of  answering,  went  in 
to  look  at  the  clock. 

"Ah,"  said  she,  "you  are  just  in  time.  I 
thought  you  were  too  late.  Second  story, 
right-hand  door." 

"There's  one  thing  good  about  the  American 
legation,  Carlos,"  said  Rollo;  "and  that  is, 
that  they  can  talk  English,  I  suppose." 

This  was,  indeed,  a  great  advantage.  Rollo 
found  when  he  went  into  the  office  of  the  lega- 
tion, that  the  secretary  not  only  could  talk  Eng- 
lish, but  that  he  was  a  very  kindhearted  and 
agreeable  man.  He  talked  with  Rollo  in  Eng- 
lish and  with  Carlos  in  Spanish.  Both  the  boys 
were  very  much  pleased  with  the  reception  they 
wet  with.  The  necessary  stamps  were 
promptly  affixed  to  the  passports;  and  then 
the  boys,  giving  the  secretary  both  an  English 
and  a  Spanish  good  by,  went  downstairs  to  the 
carriage  again.  They  directed  the  coachman 
to  drive  as  quick  as  possible  to  the  Swiss  lega- 
tion, showing  him  the  address  which  Rollo's 
uncle  had  given  them.  They  then  got  into  the 
carriage,  and  the  coachman  drove  away. 

"Now,    Carlos,"    said   Rollo,    "we  are  all 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  19 

right ;  that  is,  if  we  only  get  to  the  Swiss  lega- 
tion before  it  is  shut  up." 

"He  said  he  had  been  in  Madrid,"  rejoined 
Carlos.     "He  was  there  three  months.  " 

"I  believe,"  added  Rollo,  "that  uncle  George 
said  it  did  not  close  till  three ;  and  it  is  only 
two  now. ' ' 

"And  he  knew  the  street  my  father  lived  in 
very  well,"  said  Carlos. 

Very  soon  the  carriage  stopped  at  the  place 
which  the  coachman  said  was  the  Swiss  lega- 
tion. Rollo  got  out  and  went  to  the  porter's 
lodge  with  the  passports  in  his  hand.  The 
woman  in  charge  knew  at  once  what  he 
wanted,  and,  without  waiting  to  hear  him  finish 
the  question  which  he  began  to  ask,  directed 
him  "to  the  second  story  on  the  right." 

Rollo  went  up  the  staircase  till  he  came  to 
the  door,  and  there  pulled  the  cord. 

A  clerk  opened  the  door.  Rollo  held  out  the 
passports. 

"Enter  there,"  said  the  clerk,  in  French, 
pointing  to  an  inner  door. 

Rollo  went  in  and  found  there  a  very  pleas- 
ant little  room,  with  cases  of  books  and  papers 
around  it,  and  maps  and  plans  of  Switzerland 
and  of  Swiss  towns  upon  the  wall.  The  clerk 
took  the  passports  and  asked  the  boys  to  sit 
down.  In  a  few  minutes  the  proper  stamps 
were  affixed  to  them  both,  and  the  proper  sig- 
natures added.  The  clerk  then  said  that  there 
was  the  sum  of  six  francs  to  pay.  Rollo  paid 
the  money,  and  then  he  and  Carlos  went  down- 
stairs. 


20  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

They  now  returned  to  the  prefecture  of 
police.  They  went  in  as  they  had  done  before, 
and  gave  the  passports  to  the  man  who  was 
seated  in  the  little  enclosure  in  the  foreigner's 
part  of  the  room.  He  took  them,  examined 
the  new  stamps  which  had  been  put  upon  them, 
and  then  said,  "Very  well.  Take  a  seat  a 
little  minute." 

Rolio  and  Carlos  sat  down  upon  one  of  the 
benches  to  wait ;  but  the  little  minute  proved 
to  be  nearly  half  an  hour.  They  were  not  tired 
of  waiting,  however,  there  was  so  much  to 
amuse  and  interest  them  going  on  in  the  room. 

"I  am  going  to  watch  and  see  what  the 
foreigners  do  to  get  their  passports,"  said 
Rollo,  in  an  undertone,  to  Carlos,  "for  we 
must  do  the  same." 

In  thus  watching,  Rollo  observed  that  from 
time  to  time  a  name  was  called  by  one  of  the 
clerks  behind  the  desk,  and  then  some  of  the 
persons  waiting  on  the  seats  would  rise  and  go 
to  the  place.  After  stopping  there  a  few  min- 
utes, he  would  take  his  passport  and  carry  it 
into  an  inner  room  to  another  desk,  where 
something  was  done  to  it.  Then  he  would 
bring  it  out  to  another  place,  where  it  was 
stamped  once  or  twice  by  a  man  who  seemed 
to  have  nothing  else  to  do  but  to  stamp  every- 
body's passport  when  they  came  out.  By 
watching  this  process  in  the  case  of  the  others, 
Rollo  knew  exactly  what  to  do  when  his  name 
was  called;  so  that,  in  about  half  an  hour  from 
the  time  that  he  went  into  the  office,  he  had 
the  satisfaction  of  coming  out  and  getting  into 


r  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  21 

his  carriage  with  the  passports  all  in  order  for 
the  journey  to  Switzerland. 

When  he  got  home  and  showed  them  to  Mr. 
George,  his  uncle  looked  them  over  carefully; 
and,  when  he  found  that  the  stamp  of  the  police 
was  duly  affixed  to  them  both, — knowing,  as 
he  did,  that  these  would  not  be  put  on  till  all 
the  others  were  right, — he  said, — 

"Well,  Rollo,  you've  done  it.  I  declare.  I 
did  not  think  you  were  so  much  of  a  man. " 


22  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 


CHAPTER  II. 

CROSSING    THE    FRONTIER. 

On  the  morning  when  Mr.  George  and  Rollo 
were  about  setting  out  for  Switzerland,  Rollo, 
having  got  everything  ready  himself  half  an 
hour  before  the  time,  took  out  his  map  of 
Europe  and  asked  his  uncle  George  what  route 
they  were  going  to  take.  Mr.  George  was  busy 
at  that  time  putting  the  last  things  into  his 
trunk  and  making  ready  to  lock  it  up  and 
strap  it ;  so  he  could  not  come  to  Rollo  to  show 
him  the  route,  but  was  obliged  to  describe  it. 

"Have  you  found  Paris?"  said  he. 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo;  "I  have  got  my  finger 
on  it. ' ' 

"In  the  first  place,  then,"  said  Mr.  George, 
"there  is  a  railway  that  goes  east  from  Paris 
a  hundred  miles  across  France  to  Strasbourg 
on  the  Rhine.  See  if  you  can  find  Strasbourg 
on  the  Rhine. " 

"Yes,"  said  Ror.o;  "here  it  is." 

"Then,"  said  Mr.  George,  "we  take  another 
railway  and  go  south,  up  the  Rhine,  toward 
Switzerland. " 

"Down  the  Rhine,"  said  Rollo,  correcting 
his  uncle;  "it  is  down." 

"No,"  rejoined  Mr.  George.  "It  is  down  on 
the  map;  that  is,  it  is  down  the  page;  but  it  i9 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  23 

really  up  the  river.  The  Rhine  flows  to  the 
north.  It  collects  the  waters  of  a  hundred 
glaciers  in  Switzerland  and  carries  them  north 
into  the  North  Sea." 

"Well,"  saidRollo. 

4 'This railway,"  continued  Mr.  George,  "will 
take  us  up  from  Strasbourg,  along  the  bank  of 
the  Rhine,  to  Basle,  which  is  in  Switzerland, 
just  across  the  frontier.  It  is  there,  I  sup- 
pose, that  we  shall  have  to  show  our  passports; 
and  then  we  shall  know  if  you  got  them 
stamped  right." 

"I  did  get  them  stamped  right,  I  am  very 
sure, ' '  said  Rollo. 

'  'Boys  are  generally  very  sure  that  what 
they  do  is  done  right,"  rejoined  Mr.  George. 

Soon  after  this  Mr,  George  and  Rollo  took 
their  seats  in  the  carriage,  which  had  been  for 
some  time  standing  ready  for  them  in  the 
court  yard  of  the  inn,  and  drove  to  the  Stras« 
bourg  station. 

Rollo  was  greatly  interested  and  excited, 
when  he  arrived  at  the  Stra? bourg  station,  to 
see  how  extensive  and  magnificent  it  was. 
The  carriage  entered,  with  a  train  of  other  car- 
riages, through  a  great  iron  gate  and  drew  up 
at  the  front  of  a  very  spacious  and  grand-look- 
ing building.  Porters,  dressed  in  a  sort  of 
uniform,  which  gave  them  in  some  degree  the 
appearance  of  soldiers,  were  ready  to  take  the 
two  trunks  and  carry  them  in.  The  young 
gentlemen  followed  the  porters,  and  they  soon 
found  themselves  ushered  into  an  immense 
hall,  very  neatly  and  prettily  arranged,   with 


24  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

great  maps  of  the  various  railways  painted  on 
the  walls  between  the  windows  on  the  front 
side,  and  openings  on  the  back  side  leading  to 
ticket  offices  or  waiting  rooms.  There  were 
seats  along  the  sides  of  this  hall,  with  groiips 
of  neatly-dressed  travelers  sitting  upon  them. 
Other  travelers  were  walking  about,  attending 
to  their  baggage  or  making  inquiries  of  the 
porter  or  policemen.  Others  still  were  stand- 
ing at  the  openings  of  the  ticket  offices  buying 
their  tickets.  What  chiefly  struck  Rollo's 
attention,  however,  and  impressed  his  mind, 
was  the  air  of  silence,  order,  and  decorum 
which  prevailed  and  which  gave  to  the  station 
an  aspect  so  different  from  that  of  an  American 
station.  It  is  true,  the  hall  was  very  large, 
and  there  were  a  great  many  people  in  it  going 
and  coming:  but  they  all  walked  decorously 
and  quietly, — they  spoke  in  an  undertone, — 
and  the  presence  of  so  many  railway  officials  in 
their  several  uniforms,  and  of  police  officers 
with  their  badges,  and  here  and  there  a  soldier 
on  guard,  gave  to  the  whole  scene  quite  a 
solemn  and  imposing  appearance. 

Rollo  gazed  about  the  apartment  as  he  came 
in,  surveying  the  various  objects  and  groups 
that  presented  themselves  to  his  view,  until  his 
eye  rested  upon  a  little  party  of  travelers,  con- 
sisting of  a  lady  and  two  boys,  who  were  stand- 
ing together  near  a  low  railing,  waiting  for  the 
gentleman  who  was  with  them  to  come  back 
from  the  ticket  office  with  their  tickets.  What 
chiefly  attracted  Rollo's  attention,  however, 
was  a  pretty  little  dog,  with  very  long  ears, 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  25 

and  black,  glossy  hair,  which  one  of  the  chil- 
dren held  by  a  cord.  The  cord  was  attached  to 
the  dog's  neck  by  a  silver  collar. 

Rollo  looked  at  this  group  for  a  few  minutes, 
— his  attention  being  particularly  occupied  by 
the  dog, — and  then  turned  again  toward  his 
uncle,  or  rather  toward  the  place  where  his 
uncle  had  been  standing;  but  he  found,  to  his 
surprise,  that  he  was  gone. 

In  a  moment,  however,  he  saw  his  uncle 
coming  toward  him.  He  was  clasping  his 
wallet  and  putting  it  in  his  pocket. 

"Uncle  George,"  said  he,  "see  that  beautiful 
little  dog!" 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"I  wish  I  had  such  a  dog  as  that  to  travel 
with  me,"  said  Rollo.  "But,  uncle  George, 
where  are  we  to  get  our  tickets?" 

"I've  got  mine,"  said  Mr.  George.  "When 
I  come  to  a  railway  station  I  always  get  my 
ticket  the  first  thing,  and  look  at  the  pretty 
little  dogs  afterward. " 

So  saying,  Mr.  George  took  a  newspaper  out 
of  his  pocket  and  began  to  walk  away,  adding, 
as  he  went, — 

"I'll  sit  down  here  and  read  my  newspaper 
till  you  have  got  your  ticket,  and  then  we  will 
go  into  the  waiting  room. " 

"But,  uncle  George,"  said  Rollo,  "why  did 
not  you  get  me  a  ticket  when  you  got  yours?" 

"Because,"  said  Mr.  George,  among  other 
reasons,  "I  did  not  know  which  class  carriage 
you  wished  to  go  in.  " 

"Why,  uncle  George!"  exclaimed  Rollo,  sur- 

Elemexifc  iry 

Pembroke  High  School 

Pembroke,  Virginia 


26  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

prised.  "I  must  go  in  the  same  carriage  that 
you  do,  of  course. ' ' 

"Not  of  course,"  said  Mr.  George.  "I  have 
got  a  ticket  in  the  first  class;  and  I  should  like 
to  have  your  company  in  my  car  very  much  if 
you  choose  to  pay  the  price  for  a  first-class 
ticket.  But  if  you  choose  to  take  a  second  or 
a  third-class  ticket  you  will  save,  perhaps, 
half  your  money." 

So  saying,  Mr.  George  went  away  and  left 
Rollo  to  himself. 

This  was  the  way  that  Mr.  George  always 
treated  Rollo  when  he  was  traveling  with  him. 
He  left  him  to  act  for  himself  and  to  take  care 
of  himself  in  almost  all  the  emergencies  that 
occurred.  He  did  this,  not  because  he  wished 
to  save  himself  the  trouble  of  taking  care  of  a 
boy,  but  because  he  thought  it  was  much 
better  for  boys  early  to  learn  to  take  care  of 
themselves. 

The  manner  in  which  Mr.  George  thus  threw 
the  responsibility  upon  Rollo  seemed  some- 
times to  be  a  little  blunt.  One  would  suppose, 
in  some  of  these  cases,  from  the  way  in  whi  :h 
he  spoke  and  acted,  that  he  did  not  care  at  all 
what  became  of  Rollo,  so  coolly  and  with  such 
an  air  of  unconcern  did  he  leave  him  to  his 
own  resources.  In  fact,  Rollo  was  frequently 
at  such  times  a  little  frightened,  or  at  least 
perplexed,  and  often,  at  first,  felt  greatly  at  a 
loss  to  know  what  to  do.  But,  on  reflecting  a 
little  upon  the  subject,  he  usually  soon  suc- 
ceeded in  extricating  himself  from  the  diffi- 
culty ;  and  then  he  was  always  cuiite  proud  of 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  27 

having  done  so,  and  was  pleased  with  his  uncle 
George  for  having  given  him  the  opportunity. 
So  Mr.  George,  having  learned  by  experience 
that  Rollo  liked,  on  the  whole,  to  be  treated  in 
this  way,  always  adopted  it ;  and  in  carrying  it 
out  he  sometimes  spoke  and  acted  in  such  a 
way  as  might,  under  other  circumstances, 
have  appeared  somewhat  sterna 

The  idea  of  taking  a  second-class  car  for 
himself  in  order  to  save  a  portion  of  his  money, 
while  his  uncle  went  in  one  of  the  first  class, 
took  Rollo 's  imagination  strongly,  and  he  was 
half  inclined  to  adopt  it. 

"On  the  whole,"  said  he  to  himself,  "I  will 
not  do  it  to-day;  but  I  will  some  other  day. 
And  now  I  wonder  which  is  the  ticket  office  for 
Strasbourg." 

So  saying,  Rollo  looked  about  the  room  and 
soon  found  the  proper  place  to  apply  for  his 
ticket.  He  procured  a  ticket  without  any  diffi- 
culty, asking  for  it  in  French,  with  a  pronun- 
ciation which,  if  it  was  not  perfectly  correct, 
was  at  least  perfectly  intelligible.  As  soon  as 
he  had  received  his  ticket  and  had  taken  up  his 
change  he  went  to  the  bench  where  his  uncle 
George  was  sitting  and  said  that  he  was  ready. 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  George,  "then  we'll  go.  I 
like  to  travel  with  a  boy  that  is  capable  of 
taking  care  of  himself  and  is  willing  to  be 
treated  like  a  man." 

Saying  these  words,  Mr.  George  rose  from 
his  seat,  and,  after  attending  properly  to  the 
baggage,  he  and  Rollo  passed  through  a  door 
guarded   by  a  man  in  uniform,    who  required 


28  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

them  to  show  him  their  tickets  before  he 
would  allow  them  to  pass,  and  then  entered  a 
spacious  apartment  which  was  reserved  as  the 
waiting  room  for  the  first-class  passengers. 
This  room  was  beautifully  finished  and  richly 
adorned,  and  the  splendid  sofas  and  ttomans 
which  were  ranged  about  the  sides  :>f  it  were 
occupied  by  well-dressed  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
carrying  shawls,  greatcoats,  and  small  travel- 
ing bags  upon  their  arms,  and  exhibiting  other 
similar  indications  of  their  being  travelers. 
Mr.  George  and  Rollo  to  k  eat:  at  a  vacant 
place  upon  one  of  the  sofas.  In  a  few  minutes 
an  officer  came  and  i:  formed  the  company,  in 
a  very  respectful  manner,  that  the  train  was 
ready;  whereupon  they  all  rose  from  their 
seats  and  walked  out  upon  the  platform  where 
the  train  was  waiting.  Here  there  were 
several  railway  servants,  all  dressed  in  uni- 
form, whose  business  it  was  to  conduct  the 
passengers  to  the  several  cars,  or  carriages,  as 
they  called  them,  and  open  the  doors.  These 
carriages  were  entirely  different  in  their  con- 
struction from  the  long  and  open  cars  used  in 
America,  which  form  but  one  compartment, 
that  extends  through  the  whole  length  of  the 
car.  The  French  cars  were  like  three  elegant 
carriages,  joined  together  in  such  a  manner 
th  though  the  three  formed  but  one  car, 
they  were  still  entirely  distinct  from  each 
other.  The  3eats  in  these  carriages  were  very 
spacious,  and  they  were  richly  stuffed  and 
lined,  so  that  they  formed  soft  and  luxurious 
places  of  repose.     The  railway  porter  opened 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  29 

one  of  the  doors  and  admitted  Mr.  George  and 
Rollo,  and  when  they  had  entered  he  closed  it 
again. 

"Ah,"  said  Rollo,  seating  himself  upon  the 
soft  cushion  on  one  of  the  seats,  "is  not  this 
superb?  I  am  very  glad  I  did  not  take  a 
second-class  car." 

"And  yet  the  second-class  cars  in  France  are 
very  comfortable  and  very  respectable,"  said 
Mr.  George,  "and  they  are  very  much 
cheaper." 

"How  much  should  we  have  saved,"  asked 
Rollo,  "in  going  to  Strasbourg,  if  we  had  taken 
a  second-class  car?" 

"I  don't  know,  precisely,"  said  Mr.  George. 
"We  should  have  saved  a  great  deal." 

The  train  now  began  to  move;  and,  soon 
after  it  left  the  station,  Mr.  George  took  out 
his  newspaper  again  and  began  to  read.  It 
was  a  copy  of  a  very  celebrated  newspaper, 
called  the  London  Times.  Mr.  George  had 
another  London  paper  which  was  full  of 
humorous  engravings.  The  name  of  it  was 
Punch.  Mr.  George  gave  the  Punch  to  Rollo, 
thinking  that  the  pictures  and  caricatures  in  it 
might  perhaps  amuse  him;  but  Rollo,  after 
turning  it  over  a  moment,  concluded  that  he 
should  prefer  to  amuse  himself  by  looking  out 
the  window. 

Rollo  saw  a  great  many  beautiful  views  and 
witnessed  a  great  many  strr.nge  and  striking 
scenes  as  he  was  whirled  onward  by  the  tram 
across  the  country  from  Paris  toward  Stras- 
bourg.    We  cannot,  however,  stop  to  describe 


SO  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

what  he  saw,  but  must  hasten  on  to  the  Swiss 
frontier.  The  travelers  arrived  at  Strasbourg 
in  the  evening.  They  spent  the  night  at  a 
hotel ;  and  the  next  morning  they  took  another 
railway  which  led  along  the  bank  of  the 
Rhine,  up  the  river,  toward  Switzerland. 
The  country  was  magnificent.  There  was  the 
river  on  one  side,  and  a  range  of  mountains 
rising  sublimely  in  the  interior  on  the  other. 
The  mountains  were  at  a  distance  of  several 
miles  from  the  river;  and  the  country  between 
was  an  extremely  fertile  and  luxuriant  plain, 
covered  with  villages,  castles,  parks,  pleasure 
grounds,  gardens,  and  cultivated  fields,  which 
presented  everywhere  most  enchanting  pic- 
tures of  rural  beauty.  This  province  is  called 
Alsatia. 

,  The  terminus  of  the  railway  was  at  the  city 
of  R-^sle,  which  lies  just  within  the  confines 
of  Switzerland.  A  short  distance  before  reach- 
ing the  gates  of  Basle,  the  train  stopped  at 
what  seemed  at  first  to  be  a  station.  It  was, 
however,  only  the  custom  house,  where  the 
trunks  and  passports  were  to  be  examined. 

"What  are  we  to  do  here,"  asked  Rollo. 

"I  am  going  to  do  what  I  see  other  people 
do,"  replied  Mr.  George.  "You  can  do  what- 
ever you  please." 

At  this  moment  a  guard,  dressed,  like  all  the 
other  railway  servants,  in   a  sort  of  uniform, 
opened   the   door   of   the  car    in   which    Mr. 
George  and  Rollo  were  sitting,  and  said  in  a 
very  respectful  manner,  in  French, — 

"The  custom  house,  gentlemen." 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  31 

Mr.  Gecrge  observed  that  the  passengers 
were  getting  out  from  all  the  other  cars;  so 
he  stepped  out  too,  and  Rollo  followed  him. 

When  they  reached  the  platform  they  ob- 
served that  a  company  of  porters  were  em- 
ployed in  carrying  all  the  trunks  and  baggage 
from  the  cars  to  the  custom  house,  and  that 
the  passengers  were  going  into  the  custom 
houso,  too,  though  by  another  door.  Mr. 
George  and  Rollo  went  in  with  them.  They 
found  an  office  within,  and  a  desk,  where  one 
or  two  secretaries  sat  and  examined  the  pass- 
ports of  the  travelers  as  they  successively  pre- 
sented them.  As  fast  as  they  were  examined 
they  were  impressed  with  a  new  stamp,  which 
denoted  permission  for  the  travelers  to  pass 
the  Swiss  frontier.  The  several  travelers,  as 
fast  as  their  passports  were  examined,  found 
right,  and  stamped,  were  allowed  to  pass 
between  two  soldiers  through  a  door  into 
another  hall,  where  they  found  all  the  trunks 
and  baggage  arranged  on  a  sort  of  counter, 
which  extended  around  the  center  of  the  room, 
so  as  to  enclose  a  square  place  within.  The 
custom-house  officers  who  were  to  examine 
the  baggage  were  within  this  enclosure,  while 
the  travelers  who  owned  the  baggage  stood 
without.  These  last  walked  around  the 
counter,  looking  at  the  trunks,  boxes,  bundles, 
and  carpet  bags  that  covered  it,  each  selecting 
his  own  and  opening  the  several  parcels,  in 
order  that  the  officers  within  might  examine 
them. 

The  object  of  examining  the  trunks  of  pas 


32  ROLLO  IN  SW-TZERLAND. 

sengers  in  this  way  is,  to  ascertain  that  they 
have  not  any  goods  concealed  in  them.  As  a 
general  thing,  persons  are  not  allowed  to  take 
goods  from  one  country  to  another  without 
paying  a  tax  for  them.  Such  a  tax  is  called 
technically  a  duty,  and  the  avails  of  it  go  to 
support  the  government  of  the  country  which 
the  goods  are  carried  into.  Travelers  are 
allowed  to  take  with  them  all  that  is  necessary 
for  their  own  personal  use,  as  travelers,  with- 
out paying  any  duty,  but  articles  that  are  in- 
tended for  sale  as  merchandise,  or  those  which, 
though  intended  for  the  traveler's  own  use, 
are  not  strictly  personal,  are  liable  to  pay 
duty.  The  principle  is,  that  whatever  the 
traveler  requires  for  his  own  personal  use,  in 
traveling,  is  not  liable  to  duty.  What  he  does 
not  so  require  must  pay  duty,  no  matter 
whether  he  intends  to  use  it  himself  or  to 
sell  it. 

Many  travelers  do  not  understand  this  prop- 
erly, and  often  get  into  difficulty  by  not  under- 
standing it,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  sequel. 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  went  into  the  baggage 
room  together,  showing  their  passports  as  they 
passed  through  between  the  soldiers.  They 
then  walked  slowly  along  the  room,  looking 
at  the  baggage,  as  it  was  arranged  upon  the 
counter,  in  search  of  their  own. 

"I  see  my  trunk,"  said  Mr.  George,  looking 
along  at  a  little  distance  before  him.  "There 
it  is." 

"And  where  do  you  suppose  mine  is?"  asked 
Rollo. 


ROLLO  IK  SWITZERLAND.  33 

"I  have  not  the  least  idea,"  said  Mr.  George. 
"I  advise  you  to  walk  all  around  the  room  and 
see  if  you  can  find  it  and  when  you  find  it,  get 
it  examined. " 

Rollo,  taking  this  advice,  walked  on,  leaving 
Mr.  George  in  the  act  of  taking  out  his  key  in 
order  to  open  his  trunk  for  the  purpose  of 
allowing  an  officer  to  inspect  it  as  soon  as  one 
should  be  ready. 

Rollo  soon  found  his  trunk.  It  was  in  a 
part  of  the  room  remote  from  his  uncle's. 
Near  his  trunk  was  a  very  large  one,  which 
the  officers  were  searching  very  thoroughly; 
They  had  found  something  in  it  which  was  not 
personal  baggage  and  which  the  lady  had  not 
declared.  Rollo  could  not  see  what  the  article 
was  which  the  officers  had  found.  It  was 
something  contained  in  a  pretty  box.  The 
lady  had  put  it  into  the  bottom  of  her  trunk. 
The  officers  had  taken  it  out,  and  were  now 
examining  it.  The  lady  stood  by,  seemingly  in 
great  distress. 

Rollo's  attention,  which  had  begun  to  be 
attracted  by  this  scene,  was,  however,  almost 
immediately  called  off  from  it  by  the  voice  of 
another  officer,  who  pointed  to  his  trunk  and 
asked  him  if  it  was  his. 

"Is  that  yours?"  said  the  officer,  in  French. 

"Yes,"  replied  Rollo,  in  the  same  language, 
"it  is  mine;"  and  so  saying,  he  proceeded  to 
take  out  his  key  and  unlock  the  trunk. 

"Have  you  anything  to  declare?"  asked  the 
man. 

Rollo  looked  perplexed.     He  did  not  know 

3    Switzerland 


34  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

what  the  officer  meant  by  asking  him  if  he  had 
anything  to  declare.  After  a  moment's  hesita- 
tion he  said, — 

"I  don't  know;  but  I  will  go  and  ask  my 
uncle. " 

So  Rollo  went  to  the  place  where  he  had  left 
his  uncle  George,  and  accosted  him  by  say- 
inc  — 

"They  want  to  know  if  I  have  anything  to 
declare.     What  do  they  mean?" 

"They  mean  whether  you  have  any  goods  in 
your  trunk  that  are  liable  to  pay  duty.  Tell 
them  no." 

So  Rollo  went  back  and  told  the  officer  that 
he  had  not  anything  to  declare.  He  then  opened 
his  trunk;  but  the  officer,  instead  of  examin- 
ing it,  shut  down  the  lid,  saying,  "Very  well;" 
and  by  means  of  a  piece  of  chalk  he  marked  it 
upon  the  top  with  some  sort  of  character.  A 
porter  then  took  the  trunk  and  carried  it  back 
to  the  train. 

Rollo  perceived  that  the  difficulty  about  the 
lady's  baggage  had  been  settled  in  some  way 
or  other,  but  he  feared  it  was  settled  in  a  man- 
ner not  very  satisfactory  to  the  lady  herself; 
for,  as  the  porters  took  up  her  trunk  to  carry 
it  back,  she  looked  quite  displeased  and  out  of 
humor. 

Rollo  went  back  to  the  place  where  he  had 
left  his  uncle  George,  and  then  they  went 
together  out  to  the  platform.  Here  Rollo 
found  the  lady  who  had  had  the  difficulty 
about  her  baggage  explaining  the  case  to  some 
friends  that  she  found  there.     She  seemed  to 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  85 

be  very  indignant  and  angry,  and  was  telling 
her  story  with  great  volubility.  Rollo  listened 
for  a  moment ;  but  she  spoke  so  rapidly  that 
he  could  not  understand  what  she  said,  as  she 
spoke  in  French. 

"What  does  she  say?"  he  asked,  speaking  to 
Mr.  George. 

"She  says,"  replied  Mr.  George,  "that  they 
were  going  to  seize  something  that  she  had  in 
her  trunk  because  she  did  not  declare  it." 

"What  does  that  mean?"  said  Rollo. 

"Why,  the  law  is,"  said  Mr.  George,  "that 
when  people  have  anything  in  their  trunks 
that  is  dutiable,  if  they  declare  it,  that  is, 
acknowledge  that  they  have  it  and  show  it  to 
the  officers,  then  they  have  only  to  pay  the 
duty,  and  they  may  carry  the  article  in.  But 
if  they  do  not  declare  it,  but  hide  it  away  some- 
where in  their  trunks,  and  the  officers  find  it 
there,  then  the  thing  is  forfeited  altogether. 
The  officers  seize  it  and  sell  it  for  the  benefit 
of  the  government." 

"O,  uncle  George!"  exclaimed  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "that  is  what  they 
do;  and  it  is  right.  If  people  wish  to  bring 
anything  that  is  subject  to  duty  into  any 
country  they  ought  to  be  willing  to  pay  the 
duty,  and  not,  by  refusing  to  pay,  make  other 
people  pay  more  than  their  share." 

"If  one  man  does  not  pay  his  duty,"  rejoined 
Rollo,  "do  the  others  have  to  pay  more?" 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "in  the  end  they 
do.  At  least  I  suppose  so.  Whatever  the 
amount  of  money  may  be  that  is  required  for 


86  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

the  expenses  of  government,  if  one  man  does 
not  pay  his  share,  the  rest  must  make  it  up,  I 
suppose. " 

"They  did  not  look  into  my  trunk  at  all," 
said  Rollo.  "Why  didn't  they?  I  might  have 
had  ever  so  many  things  hid  away  there." 

"I  suppose  they  knew  from  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case, "  said  Mr.  George,  "that 
you  would  not  be  likely  to  have  any  smuggled 
goods  in  your  trunk.  They  saw  at  once  that 
you  were  a  foreign  boy,  and  knew  that  you 
must  be  coming  to  Switzerland  only  to  make 
a  tour,  and  that  you  could  have  no  reason  for 
wishing  to  smuggle  anything  into  the  country. 
They  scarcely  looked  into  my  trunk  at  all." 

While  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  had  been  hold- 
ing this  conversation  they  had  returned  to 
their  places  in  the  car,  and  very  soon  the  train 
was  in  motion  to  take  them  into  the  town. 

Thus  our  travelers  passed  the  Swiss  frontier. 
In  half  an  hour  afterward  they  were  com- 
fortably established  at  a  large  and  splendid 
hotel  called  the  Three  Kings.  The  hotel  has 
this  name  in  three  languages,  English,  French, 
and  German,  as  people  speaking  those  several 
languages  come,  in  almost  equal  numbers,  to 
Switzerland.  Thus  when  you  leave  the  station 
you  may,  in  your  directions  to  the  coachman, 
say  you  wish  to  go  to  the  Three  Kings,  or  to 
the  Trois  Rois,  or  to  the  Drei  Konige,  which- 
ever you  please.  They  all  mean  the  same 
hotel — the  best  hotel  in  Basle. 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  37 


CHAPTER  III. 

BASLE. 

The  city  of  Basle  stands  upon  the  banks  of 
the  Rhine,  on  the  northern  frontier  of  Switzer- 
land. The  waters  of  the  Rhine  are  gathered 
from  hundreds  of  roaring-  and  turbid  torrents 
which  come  out,  some  from  vast  icy  caverns 
in  the  glaciers,  some  from  the  melting  debris 
of  fallen  avalanches,  some  from  gushing  foun- 
tains which  break  out  suddenly  through  crev- 
ices in  the  rocks  or  yawning  chasms,  and  some 
from  dark  and  frightful  ravines  on  the  moun- 
tain sides,  down  which  they  foam  and  tumble 
perpetually,  fed  by  vast  fields  of  melting  snow 
above.  The  waters  of  all  these  torrents,  being 
gathered  at  last  into  one  broad,  and  deep,  and 
rapid  stream,  flow  to  a  vast  reservoir  called 
the  Lake  of  Constance,  where  they  repose  for 
a  time,  or,  rather,  move  slowly  and  insensibly 
forward,  enjoying  a  comparative  quiescence 
which  has  all  the  characteristics  and  effects  of 
repose.  The  waters  enter  this  reservoir  wild 
and  turbid.  They  leave  it  calm  and  clear; 
and  then,  flowing  rapidly  for  one  hundred 
miles  along  the  northern  frontier  of  Switzer- 
land, and  receiving  successively  the  waters  of 
many  other  streams  that  have  come  from  hun- 
dreds of  other  torrents  and  have  been  purified 


33  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

in  the  repose  of  other  lakes  extending  over  the 
whole  northern  slope  of  Switzerland,  they 
form  a  broad  and  rapid  river,  which  flows 
swiftly  through  Basle,  and  then,  turning  sud- 
denly to  the  northward,  bids  Basle  and  Switz- 
erland farewell  together. 

"And  then  where  does  it  go?"  said  Rollo  to 
Mr.  George  when  his  uncle  had  explained  this 
thus  far  to  him. 

"  Straight  across  the  continent  to  the  North 
Sea,"  said  Mr.  George. 

Thus  the  whole  northern  slope  of  Switzerland 
is  drained  by  a  system  of  waters  which,  when 
united  at  Basle,  form  the  River  Rhine. 

The  morning  after  Mr.  George  and  Rollo 
arrived  at  Basle  they  were  looking  out  upoa 
the  River  Rhine  from  the  windows  of  the 
hotel. 

"What  a  swift  river!"  said  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"And  how  blue  the  water  is!"  continued 
Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George.  "The  water  of  the 
streams  which  come  from  the  Swiss  mountains 
is  turbid  at  first  and  very  gray  from  the  grind- 
ing up  of  the  rocks  in  the  moraines  and  glaciers 
and  by  the  avalanches." 

"What  it  a  moraine?"  asked  Rollo. 

"I  will  explain  it  to  you  one  of  these  days," 
said  Mr.  George,  "when  you  come  to  see  one." 

"And  a  glacier,"  said  Rollo;  "what  is  that?" 

"I  will  explain  that  to  you,  too,  some  other 
time,"  said  Mr.  George,  "but  not  now;  for  the 
breakfast  will  come  in  in  a  minute  or  two. " 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  39 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,"  I  can  hear  while  I  am 
eating  my  breakfast." 

"That  maybe,"  replied  Mr.  George;  "but  I 
cannot  lecture  very  well  while  I  am  eating  my 
breakfast. ' ' 

Rollo  laughed.  "I  did  not  think  of  that," 
said  he. 

"What  queer  boats!"  continued  Rollo,  look- 
ing out  again  upon  the  river.  "And  there  is 
a  long  bridge  leading  over  to  the  other  side. 
May  I  go  out  and  walk  over  on  that  bridge 
after  breakfast?" 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "you  may  go  any- 
where you  please." 

"But  suppose  I  should  get  lost,"  said  Rollo. 
"What  should  I  do  then?" 

"I  don't  know,"  said  Mr.  George,  "unless 
you  should  ask  somebody  to  tell  you  the  way 
to  the  Three  Kings." 

"But  perhaps  they  would  not  understand 
English,"  said  Rollo. 

"Then you  must  sayTrois  Rois,  which  is  the 
French  name  for  the  hotel,"  rejoined  Mr. 
George. 

"But  perhaps  they  would  not  understand 
French,"  said  Rollo. 

"No, "replied  Mr.  George;  "I  think  it  prob- 
able they  would  not;  for  people  talk  German 
generally  in  this  part  of  Switzerland.  In  that 
case  you  must  ask  the  way  to  Drei    Konige. " 

Here  the  waiter  came  in  with  the  breakfast. 
It  consisted  of  a  pot  of  coffee,  another  of  boiled 
milk,  an  omelette,  some  excellent  cakes,  and 
some  honey.     There  was  a  long  table  extend- 


40  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

ing  up  and  down  the  room,  which  was  a  very 
large  and  handsome  apartment,  and  there  were 
besides  several  round  tables  in  corners  and 
in  pleasant  places  near  the  windows.  The 
breakfast  for  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  was  put 
upon  one  of  the  round  tables;  and,  in  sitting 
down  to  it,  Rollo  took  pains  to  place  himself 
in  such  a  manner  that  he  could  look  out  the 
window  and  see  the  water  while  he  was  eating. 

"What  a  dreadful  river  that  would  be  to  fall 
into!"  said  Rollo.  "It  runs  so  swift  and  looks 
so  angry!" 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George.  "It  runs  swift 
because  the  descent  is  very  great.  Switzer- 
land is  very  high ;  and  the  water,  in  running 
from  it,  flows  very  swiftly. ' ' 

"I  did  not  know  that  Switzerland  was  all 
high,"  said  Rollo.  "I  knew  that  the  moun- 
tains were  high;  but  the  valleys  must  be  low." 

"No,"  said  Mr.  George;  "it  is  all  high.  The 
bottoms  of  the  valleys  are  higher  than  the 
tops  of  the  mountains  in  many  other  countries. 
In  going  into  Switzerland,  we  go  up  hill  nearly 
all  the  way;  and  so,  even  when  we  are  at  the 
bottom  of  the  deepest  valleys  in  Switzerland, 
we  are  up  very  high.  There  is  Chamouni, 
for  example,  which  is  a  deep  valley  near  the 
foot  of  Mont  Blanc.  The  bottom  of  that  valley 
is  six  or  seven  times  as  high  as  the  top  of  the 
Palisades  on  the  North  River." 

"O,  uncle  George!"  exclaimed  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George;  "and  it  is  so  with 
all  the  Swiss  valleys;  and,  accordingly,  the 
water  that  comes  down  through   them   has  a 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  41 

great  descent  to  make  in  getting  to  the  sea. 
Thus  there  are  a  great  many  falls,  and  cas- 
cades, and  rapids;  and  even  in  those  places 
where  the  rivers  run  smoothly,  the  current  is 
very  swift  and  very  strong. ' ' 

While  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  were  eating 
their  breakfast  the  attention  of  Rollo  was  occu- 
pied partly  by  the  prospect  of  the  river  as  he 
saw  it  through  the  open  window,  and  partly 
by  the  various  groups  of  travelers  who  were 
constantly  coming  into  the  room,  or  going  out, 
or  taking  their  breakfasts  in  little  parties  at 
the  tables.  Some  who  had  finished  their 
breakfasts  were  looking  at  maps  and  guide 
books  which  they  had  spread  out  before  them 
on  the  tables.  The  room  was  very  large,  and 
very  beautiful ;  and,  as  it  was  lighted  on  the 
back  side  by  a  row  of  wide  and  lofty  windows 
which  looked  out  upon  the  river,  it  wore  a  very 
bright  and  cheerful  expression.  At  one  end 
of  it  were  glass  doors,  which  led  into  another 
room  very  similar  to  this,  as  it  likewise  had 
windows  looking  out  upon  the  river.  This 
room  was  used  as  a  sort  of  sitting  room  and 
reading  room.  There  was  a  table  in  the  cen- 
ter, with  newspapers,  some  French,  some  Eng- 
lish, and  some  German,  lying  upon  it.  Rollo 
determined  to  go  into  this  room  as  soon  as  he 
had  finished  his  breakfast  to  see  who  was  there 
and  what  they  were  doing. 

"Rollo,"  said  Mr.  George,  after  a  short 
pause,  "do  you  wish  to  travel  in  Switzerland 
intelligently  or  blindly?" 

"What  do  you  mean  by  that?'*  asked  Rollo. 


42  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

"Why,  do  you  wish  to  understand  something 
of  the  general  features  of  the  country  first,  so 
as  to  know  always,  as  we  go  traveling  on, 
where  you  are,  and  where  you  are  going,  and 
what  you  are  to  expect  to  see,  or  would  you 
rather  not  trouble  yourself  at  all  about  this, 
but  take  things  as  they  come  along,  and  enjoy 
them  as  you  see  them,  without  thinking  or  car- 
ing what  is  to  come  next.  " 

"Which  is  the  best  way?"  asked  Rollo. 

"Either  is  a  very  good  way,"  replied  Mr. 
George.  "There  is  a  pleasure  in  understand- 
ing and  anticipating,  and  there  is  also  a  pleas- 
ure in  wondering  what  is  to  come  next  and 
meeting  with  surprises.  You  can  take  your 
choice." 

Rollo  reflected  a  moment,  and  then  he  said 
that  he  thought  he  should  like  best  to  under- 
stand. 

"Very  well,"  said  Mr.  George.  "Then  I  will 
explain  to  you  the  general  features  of  Switzer- 
land— or  at  least  that  portion  of  it  which  is  the 
chief  scene  of  the  rambles  of  tourists  and  trav- 
elers— consists  substantially  of  a  long  and  deep 
valley,  extending  from  east  to  west  through  the 
center,  and  bordered  by  a  range  of  mountains 
on  each  side.  The  range  of  mountains  on  the 
northern  side  of  this  valley  is,  of  course, 
toward  Germany ;  the  one  on  the  southern  side 
is  toward  Italy.  On  the  north  side  of  the 
northern  range  of  mountains  is  a  broad  slope 
of  land,  extending  a  hundred  miles  toward  the 
German  frontier.  On  the  southern  side  of  the 
southern  range  of  mountains  is  a  steep  and 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLANa  43 

narrow  slope,  extending  to  the  Italian  fron- 
tier. 

"Thus  we  may  say,"  continued  Mr.  George, 
"that  Switzerland  consists  substantially  of  a 
broad  northern  slope  of  land  and  a  narrow 
southern  slope,  with  a  deep  valley  between 
them.     Do  you  understand  this?" 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo.  "If  I  had  some  damp 
sand,  and  a  little  wooden  shovel,  I  think  I 
could  make  it." 

"People  do  make  models  of  the  Swiss  valleys 
and  mountains, "  said  Mr.  George.  "In  fact 
they  have  maps  of  Switzerland,  embossed  with 
all  the  mountains  in  relief;  and  I  wish  very 
much  that  we  had  one  here  to  look  at. ' ' 

"There  is  one  here,"  said  Rollo,  his  face 
brightening  up  very  luminously  as  he  spoke. 
"I  saw  it  hanging  up  in  the  gallery,  and  I  did 
not  know  what  it  was.  It  must  be  that.  I'll 
go  and  show  it  to  you  after  breakfast. ' ' 

"I  am  very  glad,"  said  Mr.  George.  "I 
wished  to  see  one  very  much.  We  will  go  and 
see  it  immediately  after  breakfast.  But  now 
let  me  tell  you  a  little  more  about  the  country. 
You  must  not  imagine  that  the  northern  slope, 
as  I  called  it,  is  one  smooth  and  uniform  sur- 
face of  descending  land.  There  are  mountains 
and  valleys,  and  lakes,  and  precipices,  and 
waterfalls,  and  every  other  variety  of  mountain 
scenery  scattered  all  over  it,  making  it  a  most 
picturesque  and  romantic  region.  It  is,  how- 
ever, on  the  whole,  a  slope.  It  begins  with 
comparatively  smooth  and  level  land  on  the 
north   and  it   terminates  in  a  range  of  lofty 


44  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

mountain  crests  on  the  south ;  and  you  have  to 
go  over  this  crest  somewhere,  by  some  of  the 
steep  and  difficult  passes  that  cross  it,  to  get 
into  the  central  valley.  We  are  on  the  margin 
of  this  slope  now.  When  we  leave  here  and 
strike  into  the  heart  of  Switzerland  we  shall  be 
gradually  ascending  it.  I  am  going  first  to  a 
place  called  Interlachen,  which  is  in  a  deep 
valley  far  up  this  slope,  just  under  the  ridge  of 
mountains.  Interlachen  is  surrounded,  in  fact, 
by  mountains,  and  a  great  many  pleasant 
excursions  can  be  made  from  it.  We  shall  stop 
there  a  few  days  and  make  excursions,  and 
then  cross  over  by  some  of  the  mountain  passes 
into  the  valley." 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,  in  a  tone  of  great  satis- 
faction. "I  shall  like  that;  I  should  like  to  go 
over  a  mountain  pass.  Shall  we  go  in  a  car- 
riage or  on  horse-back?" 

"That  depends  upon  which  of  the  passes  we 
take,"  said  Mr.  George.%  "Some  of  them  are 
carriage  roads,  some  are  bridle  paths;  and  you 
ride  over  on  mules  or  horses.  Others  are  too 
steep  and  dangerous  to  ride  over  in  any  way. 
You  have  to  go  on  foot,  climbing  up  zigzag 
paths  cut  out  of  the  rock,  and  over  great 
patches  of  snow  that  horses  and  mules  would 
sink  into." 

"Let  's  go  in  one  of  those,"  said  Rollo, 
straightening  himself  up. 

"Sometimes  the  path  becomes  narrower  and 
narrower,"  continued  Mr.  George,  "until  it  is 
finally  lost  among  the  rocks,  and  you  have  to 
clamber  around  the  point  of  some  rocky  cliff  a 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  45 

thousand  feet  in  the  air,  with  scarcely  anything 
but  the  jagged  roughness  of  the  rocks  to  cling 
to." 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  Rollo,  eagerly.  "Yes,  sir. 
Let's  go  there.  That's  just  the  kind  of  road  I 
want  to  go  in.  " 

"Well,  we'll  see,"  said  Mr.  George.  "The 
first  thing  is  to  go  to  Interlachen.  That  is  in 
the  heart  of  the  mountains,  and  very  near  the 
passes  which  lead  over  into  the  valley.  When 
we  get  there  we  will  study  the  guide  book  and 
the  maps  and  determine  which  way  to  go." 

"And  after  you  get  into  the  valley,"  said 
Rollo,  "shall  you  go  across  it,  and  go  over  the 
mountains  on  the  other  side,  into  Italy?" 

"I  don't  know, "  said  Mr.  George.  "Perhaps 
we  shall  not  have  time.  I  may  think  it  is  best 
to  spend  the  time  in  rambling  about  among 
the  mountains  and  glaciers  near  the  head  of 
the  valley,  where  I  believe  is  to  be  found  the 
most  stupendous  scenery  in  all   Switzerland. ' ' 

The  breakfast  was  now  nearly  finished, 
though  the  process  of  eating  it  had  been  a 
good  deal  impeded  by  the  conversation,  so 
large  a  share  of  it  having  fallen  to  Mr.  George. 
Mr.  George,  however,  explained  to  Rollo  that 
their  first  day's  journey  from  Basle  would  be 
south,  toward  Berne,  the  capital  of  the  country 
— a  city  which  was  situated  near  the  center  of 
the  northern  slope  which  Mr.  George  had 
described. 

"Do  we  go  by  railway?"  asked  Rollo. 

"No,"  said  Mr.  George,  "by  a  diligence." 


46  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE  DILIGENCE. 

A  diligence  is  a  sort  of  stage  coach  used  in 
France  and  Switzerland,  and  generally  on  the 
continent  of  Europe.  It  is  constructed  very 
differently,  however,  from  an  American  stage 
coach,  being  divided  into  four  distinct  com- 
partments. Rollo  had  seen  a  diligence  in 
Paris,  and  so  he  could  understand  very  easily 
the  conversation  which  ensued  between  himself 
and  his  uncle  in  respect  to  the  seats  which  they 
should  take  in  the  one  in  which  they  were  to 
travel  to  Berne.  In  order,  however,  to  enable 
the  reader  of  this  book  to  understand  it,  I  must 
here  give  a  brief  description  of  this  kind  of 
vehicle.  There  are  three  windows  in  the  side 
of  it.  Each  of  these  windows  leads  to  a  differ- 
ent compartment  of  the  coach.  In  addition  to 
these  three  compartments,  there  is,  over  the 
foremost  of  these,  on  the  top  of  the  coach,  an- 
other, making  four  in  all.  This  compartment 
on  the  top  is  called  the  banquette. 

These  coaches  are  so  large  that  they  have  a 
conductor.  The  man  who  drives  sometimes 
sits  on  a  small  seat  placed  in  front  of  the  ban- 
quette, and  sometimes  he  rides  on  one  of  the 
horses.  In  either  case,  however,  he  has 
nothing  to  do  but  to  attend  to  his  team.     The 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  4? 

passengers  and  the  baggage  are  all  under  the 
conductor's  care. 

The  compartment  immediately  beneath  the 
banquette,  which  is  the  front  compartment  of 
the  body  of  the  coach,  called  the  coupe.  The 
coupe  extends  across  the  whole  coach,  from 
one  side  to  the  other ;  but  it  is  quite  narrow. 
It  has  only  one  seat, — a  seat  facing  the  horses, 
— with  places  upon  it  for  three  passengers. 
There  are  windows  in  front,  by  which  the 
passengers  can  look  out  under  the  coachman's 
seat  when  there  is  a  coachman's  seat  there. 
The  doors  leading  to  the  coupe  are  in  the  sides. 

The  compartment  immediately  behind  the 
coupe  is  called  the  interior.  It  is  entirely  sep- 
arate from  the  coupe.  There  are  two  seats, 
which  extend  from  one  side  of  the  coach  to  the 
other,  and  have  places  upon  them  for  three 
passengers,  each,  making  six  in  all.  The  three 
passengers  who  sit  on  one  of  these  seats  must, 
of  course,  ride  with  their  backs  to  the  horses. 
The  doors  leading  to  the  interior  are  in  the 
sides.  In  fact,  the  interior  has  within  exactly 
the  appearance  of  a  common  hackney  coach, 
with  seats  for  six   passengers.  Behind   the 

interior  is  the  fourth  compartment,  which  is 
called  the  rotonde.  It  is  like  a  short  omnibus. 
The  door  is  behind,  and  the  seats  are  on  the 
sides.  This  omnibus  compartment  is  so  short 
that  there  is  only  room  for  three  people  on  each 
side,  and  the  seats  are  not  very  comfortable. 

Very  genteel  people,  who  wish  to  be  secluded 
and  to  ride  somewhat  in  style,  take  the  coupe. 

The  seats  in  the  coupe  are  very  comfortable, 


48  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

and  there  is  a  very  good  opportunity  to  see  the 
country  through  the  front  and  side  windows. 
The  price  is  much  higher,  however,  for  seats 
in  the  coupe  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  dili- 
gence. 

The  mass  of  common  travelers  generally  take 
places  in  the  interior.  The  seats  there  are 
comfortable,  only  there  is  not  a  very  good  op- 
portunity to  see  the  country ;  for  there  are  only 
two  windows,  one  on  each  side,  in  the  top  of 
the  door. 

People  who  do  not  care  much  about  the  style 
in  which  they  travel,  but  only  desire  to  have 
the  best  possible  opportunity  to  view  the 
country  and  to  have  an  amusing  time,  gen- 
erally go  up  to  the  banquette.  The  places  here 
are  cheaper  than  they  are  even  in  the  interior, 
and  mery  much  cheaper  than  they  are  in  the 
coupe. 

The  cheapest  place  of  all,  however,  is  in  the 
rotonde,  which  is  the  omnibus-like  compart- 
ment, in  the  end  of  the  diligence,  behind. 
This  compartment  is  generally  filled  with 
laborers,  soldiers  and  servants;  and  sometimes 
nurses  and  children  are  put  here. 

The  baggage  is  always  stored  upon  the  top 
of  the  diligence,  behind  the  banquette,  and 
directly  over  the  interior  and  the  rotonde.  It 
is  packed  away  very  carefully  there,  and  is 
protected  by  a  strong  leather  covering,  which 
is  well  strapped  down  over  it. 

We  now  return  to  the  conversation  which 
was  held  between  Rollo  and  Mr.  George  at  the 
close  of  their  breakfast. 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  49 

"I  have  got  some  letters  to  write  after  break- 
fast," said  Mr.  George,  "and  I  should  like  to 
go  directly  to  my  room  and  write  them.  So  I 
wish  you  would  find  out  when  the  diligence 
goes  next  to  Berne,  and  take  places  in  it  for 
you  and  me." 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,  "I  will;  only  how  shall 
I  do  it?     Where  shall  I  go?" 

"I  don't  know  anything  about  it, "replied 
Mr.  George.  "The  guide  book  says  there  is  a 
diligence  from  Basle  to  Berne;  and  I  suppose 
there  is  an  office  for  it  somewhere  about  town. 
Do  you  think  you  can  find  it?" 

"I'll  try,"  said  Rollo.  "But  how  do  we  take 
seats  in  it?  Is  there  a  book  for  us  to  write  our 
names  in,  with  the  place  where  they  are  to  call 
for  us?" 

"I  do  not  know  anything  about  it,"  said  Mr. 
George.  "All  I  know  is,  that  I  want  to  go  to 
Berne  with  you  some  way  or  other  in  the  dili- 
gence, and  I  wish  to  have  you  plan  and  arrange 
it  all." 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,  "I  will,  if  I  can  find  out. 
Only  tell  me  what  places  I  shall  take." 

"I  don't  care  particularly  about  that," 
replied  Mr.  George;  "only  let  it  be  where  we 
can  see  best.  It  must  be  either  in  the  coupe  or 
in  the  banquette.  We  can't  see  at  all,  scarcely, 
in  the  other  compartments." 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,  "I  should  like  to  be 
where  I  can  see.  But  would  you  rather  it 
would  be  in  the  coupe,  or  in  the  banquette?" 

"That   is   just  as  you  please,"  replied  Mr. 

4    Switzerland 


50  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

George.  "There  are  some  advantages  in  being 
in  the  banquette." 

"What  are  they?"  asked  Rollo. 

"There  are  four  advantages,"  replied  Mr. 
George.  "First,  it  is  up  very  high,  and  is  all 
open,  so  that  you  have  a  most  excellent  chance 
to  see. ' ' 

' '  Yes, ' '  said  Rollo.     "  I  shall  like  that.  * ' 

"The  second  advantage,"  said  Mr.  George, 
"is,  that  it  costs  less.  The  places  in  the  ban- 
quette are  quite  cheap." 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo.  "I  like  that.  So  we  can 
save  some  of  our  money." 

"The  third  advantage,"  continued  Mr. 
George,  "is,  that  we  have  a  great  deal  better 
opportunity  to  hear  talking  there.  There  are 
usually  five  persons  in  that  part  of  the  coach — 
the  coachman,  the  conductor,  and  three  pas- 
sengers. That  is,  there  will  be  one  passenger 
besides  you  and  me.  He  will  probably  be  talk- 
ing with  the  conductor  part  of  the  time,  and 
the  conductor  will  be  talking  with  the  coach- 
man, and  we  shall  be  amused  by  hearing  what 
they  say." 

"But  there  are  six  persons  in  the  interior," 
said  Rollo,  "to  talk." 

"True,"  replied  Mr.  George;  "but,  then, 
they  are  usually  not  so  sociable  there  as  they 
are  up  on  the  banquette.  Besides,  the  noise 
of  the  wheels  on  the  hard  gravel  roads  is  so 
loud  there  that  we  cannot  hear  very  well. 
Then,  moreover,  when  we  stop  to  change 
horses,  the  hostlers  and  postilions  come  out, 
and  our  e^chman  and  conductor  often  have  a 

"^H0iokL    ..^'ioL^iii 

Pemb£oi<&,  Virginia 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  51 

great  deal  of  amusing  conversation  with  them, 
which  we  can  hear  from  the  banquette;  but  we 
could  not  hear  it,  or  see  the  process  of  harness- 
ing and  unharnessing,  from  the  interior,  nor 
even  very  well  from  the  coupe." 

"Well,"  said  Rollo.  "I  like  that.  But  that 
makes  only  three  advantages.  You  said  there 
were  four. ' ' 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George.  "But  as  to  the 
fourth,  I  do  not  know  whether  you  will  con- 
sider it  an  advantage  or  not." 

"What  is  it?"  said  Rollo.  "I've  no  doubt 
but  I  shall." 

"Why,  in  getting  up  and  down  to  and  from 
the  banquette  you  will  have  a  great  deal  of 
hard  climbing  to  do. ' ' 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo.  "I  shall  like  that.  They 
are  all  advantages — very  great  advantages, 
indeed. " 

So  Rollo  fully  determined  in  his  own  mind 
that  he  would  take  places  on  the  banquette. 
He  thought  that  there  was  one  disadvantage 
in  that  part  of  the  coach;  and  that  was,  that  in 
case  of  storm  the  rain  would  drive  in  directly 
upon  them;  but  he  found  in  the  end  that  an 
excellent  provision  was  made  against  this  con- 
tingency. 

The  young  gentlemen  had  now  finished  their 
breakfasts;  and  so  they  rose  and  went  out  to 
what  Rollo  called  the  gallery,  to  see  the  em- 
bossed map  of  Switzerland  which  he  said  that 
he  had  seen  hanging  there.  The  plan  of  this 
hotel  was  very  peculiar.  In  the  center  of  it 
was  a  very  large,  open  hall,  almost  like  a  court, 


52  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

only  it  was  covered  above  with  a  roof  and 
lighted  by  a  skylight.  Around  this  hall  there 
was,  in  each  story,  an  open  gallery,  with  a  rail- 
ing on  one  side,  over  which  you  could  look 
down  to  the  floor  below;  and  on  the  other 
side,  at  short  intervals,  there  were  doors  lead- 
ing to  the  various  apartments.  Between  these 
doors,  and  against  the  walls,  were  hanging 
maps,  plans,  pictures,  and  other  embellish- 
ments, which  gave  to  these  galleries  a  very 
attractive  appearance.  Here  and  there,  too, 
on  the  different  stories,  there  were  sofas  or 
other  seats,  with  persons  sitting  upon  them. 
Some  were  sewing,  and  some  were  attending 
children  who  were  playing  near.  At  the  two 
ends  of  the  hotel  there  were  broad  staircases 
connected  with  these  galleries  and  leading 
from  one  to  the  other.  Besides  the  galleries 
there  were  long  corridors,  extending  each  way 
from  the  center  of  the  building  to  ranges  of 
apartments  situated  in  the  wings.  The  hotel, 
in  fact,  was  very  spacious,  and  it  was  very 
admirably  arranged. 

Rollo  conducted  Mr.  George  to  the  third 
story ;  and  there,  hanging  against  the  wall,  he 
found  the  embossed  map  of  Switzerland  which 
he  had  described.  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  took 
this  map  down  from  its  nail,  and,  seating  them- 
selves upon  a  settee  which  was  near,  they  held 
it  before  them  and  examined  it  very  atten- 
tively for  some  time.  Mr.  George  showed 
Rollo  the  great  central  valley  of  Switzerland, 
with  the  ranges  of  mountains  on  each  side  of  it. 
He  showed  him,  too,  the  great  slope  of  land 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  53 

which  extended  over  the  whole  northern  part 
of  Switzerland.  It  was  bounded  on  the  north 
by  the  River  Rhine  and  the  frontier,  and  on 
he  south  by  the  great  range  of  mountains 
which  separated  it  from  the  valley.  He  showed 
him,  too,  the  numerous  lakes  which  were  scat- 
tered over  the  surface  of  it. 

"You  see,"  said  he,  "that  the  waters  which 
come  out  from  the  glaciers  and  the  snow  fields, 
and  down  through  the  chasms  and  ravines  in 
the  mountain  sides,  flow  on  till  they  come  to 
some  valley  or  place  of  comparatively  low 
land;  and  they  spread  all  over  this  depression, 
and  flow  into  it  more  and  more  until  they  fill 
it  up  and  make  a  lake  there.  When  the  lake 
is  full  the  surplus  waters  run  off  clear  wherever 
they  find  a  channel." 

"Is  that  the  way  the  lakes  are  formed?" 
asked  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George.  "You  will  see 
that  it  is  so  when  we  get  up  to  them. " 

"Up  to  them?"  said  Rollo.  "You  mean 
down  to  them." 

"No,"  said'Mr.  George.  "The  lakes  are  up 
quite  high.  Many  of  them  are  far  up  the  sides 
of  the  mountains.  The  water,  in  leaving 
them,  runs  yery  rapidly,  showing  that  there  is 
a  great  descent  in  the  land  where  they  are 
flowing.  Sometimes,  in  fact,  these  streams 
and  rivers,  after  they  leave  the  lakes,  form 
great  cataracts  and  cascades  in  getting  down 
to  the  level  country  below. 

"Put  now,"  continued  Mr.  George,  "I  must 


54  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

go  to  my  writing,  and  you  may  see  what  you 
can  do  about  the  diligence. ' ' 

So  Mr.  George  went  away  toward  his  room, 
leaving  Rollo  to  hang  up  the  embossed  map 
and  then  to  determine  how  he  should  go  to 
work  to  ascertain  what  he  was  to  do. 

Rollo  found  less  difficulty  than  he  had  anti- 
cipated in  procuring  places  in  the  diligence. 
He  first  inquired  of  the  clerk,  at  the  office  of 
the  hotel.  The  clerk  offered  to  send  a  porter 
with  him  to  show  him  the  way  to  the  diligence 
office;  but  Rollo  said  that  he  would  prefer  to 
go  himself  alone,  if  the  clerk  would  tell  him 
in  what  part  of  the  town  it  was. 

So  the  clerk  gave  Rollo  the  necessary  direc- 
tion, and  Rollo  went  forth. 

He  found  the  diligence  office  very  easily. 
In  fact,  he  recognized  the  place  at  once  when 
he  came  near  it,  by  seeing  several  diligences 
standing  before  it  along  the  street.  He 
entered  under  an  archway.  On  entering,  he 
observed  several  doors  leading  to  various 
offices,  with  inscriptions  over  each  containing 
the  names  of  the  various  towns  to  which  the 
several  diligences  were  going.  At  length  he 
found  Berne. 

Rollo  did  not  know  precisely  in  what  way 
the  business  at  such  an  office  was  to  be  trans- 
acted ;  but  he  had  learned  from  past  experi- 
ence that  all  that  was  necessary  in  order  to 
make  himself  understood  in  such  cases  was,  to 
speak  the  principal  words  that  were  involved 
in  the  meaning  that  he  was  intending  to  con- 
vey, without,  attempting  to  make  full  and  com. 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  55 

plete  sentences  of  them.  In  cases  where  he 
adopted  this  mode  of  speaking  he  was  accus- 
tomed usually  to  begin  by  saying  that  he  could 
not  speak  French  very  well. 

Accordingly,  in  this  instance  he  went  to  the 
place  where  the  clerk  was  sitting  and  said, — 

"I  do  not  speak  French  very  well.  Diligence 
to  Berne.     Two  places.     Banquette." 

"Yes,  yes,"  said  the  clerk.  "I  understand 
very  well. ' ' 

The  clerk  then  told  him  what  the  price 
would  be  of  two  seats  on  the  banquette,  and 
Rollo  paid  the  money.  The  clerk  then  made 
out  and  signed  two  very  formal  receipts  and 
gave  them  to  Rollo. 

Rollo  walked  back  toward  the  hotel,  study- 
ing his  receipts  by  the  way ;  but  he  could  not 
understand  them,  as  they  were  in  the  German 
language. 


56  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 


CHAPTER  V. 

RIDE    TO    BERNE. 

At  length  the  time  arrived  for  the  departure 
of  our  two  travelers  from  Basle.  A  porter 
from  the  hotel  carried  their  trunks  to  the  dili- 
gence office,  while  Rollo  and  Mr.  George 
walked.  When  they  got  to  the  place  they 
found  the  diligence  in  the  archway,  and  several 
men  were  employed  in  carrying  up  trunks  and 
carpet  bags  to  the  top  of  it  and  stowing  them 
away  there.  In  doing  this  they  ascended  and 
descended  by  means  of  a  long  step  ladder. 
The  men  took  Mr.  George's  trunk  and  Rollo's 
and  packed  them  away  with  the  rest.  There 
were  several  persons  who  looked  like  pas- 
sengers standing  near,  waiting,  apparently,  for 
the  diligence  to  be  ready. 

Among  them  were  two  children,  a  girl  and 
a  boy,  who  seemed  to  be  about  Rollo's  age. 
They  were  plainly  but  neatly  dressed.  They 
were  sitting  on  a  chest.  The  boy  had  a  shawl 
over  his  arm,  and  the  girl  had  a  small  morocco 
traveling  bag  in  her  hand. 

The  girl  looked  a  moment  at  Rollo  as  he 
came  up  the  archway,  and  then  cast  her  eyes 
down  again.  Her  eyes  were  blue,  and  they 
were  large  and  beautiful  and  full  of  meaning. 
There  was  a  certain  gentleness  in  the  express 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  57 

sion  of  her  countenance  which  led  Rollo  to 
think  that  she  must  be  a  kind-hearted  and 
amiable  girl.  The  boy  looked  at  Rollo,  too, 
and  followed  him  some  time  with  his  eyes, 
gazing  at  him  as  he  came  up  the  archway  with 
a  look  of  interest  and  curiosity. 

It  was  not  yet  quite  time  for  the  diligence  to 
set  out.  In  fact,  the  horses  were  not  yet  har- 
nessed to  it ;  and  during  the  interval  Rollo  and 
Mr.  George  stood  by,  watching  the  process  of 
getting  the  coach  ready  for  the  journey,  and 
contrasting  the  appearance  of  the  vehicle,  and 
of  the  men  employed  about  it,  and  the  arrange- 
ments which  they  were  making,  with  the  cor- 
responding particulars  in  the  setting  off  of  a 
stage  coach  as  they  had  witnessed  it  in 
America.  While  doing  this  Rollo  walked 
about  the  premises  a  little;  and  at  length, 
finding  himself  near  the  two  children  on  the 
chest,  he  concluded  to  venture  to  accost  the 
boy. 

"Are  you  going  in  this  diligence?"  said  he, 
speaking  in  French. 

"Yes,"  replied  the  boy. 

"So  am  I,"  said  Rollo.  "Can  you  speak 
English?" 

"Yes, "  said  the  boy.  He  spoke  the  yes  in 
English. 

"Are  you  going  to  Berne?"  asked  Rollo. 

"I  don't  know,"  said  the  boy. 

The  girl,  who  had  been  looking  at  Rollo 
during  this  conversation,  here  spoke,  and  said 
that  they  were  going  to  Berne. 

"We  are  going  in  that  diligence,"  said  she. 


58  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

"So  am  I,"  said  Rollo.  "I  have  got  a  seat 
on  the  banquette." 

"Yes,"  rejoined  the  boy.  "I  wished  to 
have  a  seat  on  the  banquette,  so  that  I  could 
see ;  but  the  seats  were  all  engaged  before  my 
father  went  to  the  office ;  so  we  are  going  in 
the  coupe:  but  I  don't  like  it  half  so  well." 

"Nor  I,"  said  the  girL 

"Where  is  your  father?"  asked  Rollo. 

"He  is  gone,"  replied  the  boy,  "with 
mother  to  buy  something  at  a  shop  a  little 
way  from  here.  Lottie  and  I  were  tired,  and 
so  we  preferred  to  stay  here.  But  they  are 
coming  back  pretty  soon." 

"Are  you  all  going  to  ride  in  the  coupe?" 
said  Rollo;  "because,  there  will  not  be  room. 
There  is  only  room  for  three  in  the  coupe." 

"I  know  it,"  said  Lottie;  "but  then,  as  two 
of  us  are  children,  father  thought  that  we 
could  get  along.  Father  had  a  plan  for 
getting  Adolphus  a  seat  in  the  interior;  but 
he  was  not  willing  to  go  there,  because,  he 
said,  he  could  not  see." 

Just  at  this  moment  the  father  and  mother 
of  Adolphus  and  Lottie  came  up  the  archway 
into  the  court  yard  where  the  diligence  was 
standing.  The  horses  had  been  brought  out 
some  minutes  before  and  were  now  nearly 
harnessed.  The  gentleman  seemed  to  be 
quite  in  a  hurry  as  he  came  up;  and,  seeing 
that  the  horses  were   nearly  ready,  he   said, — 

"Now,  children,  get  in  and  take  your  places 
as  soon  as  possible. ' ' 

So  they  all  went  to  the  coach,  and  the  gen- 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  59 

tleman  attempted  to  open  the  door  leading  to 
the  coupe.      It  was  fastened. 

"Conductor,"  said  he,  speaking  very  eagerly 
to  the  conductor,  who  was  standing  near, 
"open  this  door!" 

"There  is  plenty  of  time,"  said  the  conduc- 
tor.    "There  is  no  need  of  haste.  " 

However,  in  obedience  to  the  request  of  the 
gentleman,  the  conductor  opened  the  door; 
and  the  gentleman,  helping  his  wife  in,  first, 
afterward  lifted  the  children  in,  and  then  got 
in  himself.      The  conductor  shut  the  door. 

"Come,  uncle  George,"  said  Rollo,  "is  not 
it  time  for  us  to  get  up  to  our  places?" 

"No,"  said  Mr.  George.  "They  will  tell  us 
when  the  proper  time  comes." 

So  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  remained  quietly 
standing  by  the  side  of  the  diligence  while  the 
hostlers  finished  harnessing  the  horses.  Rollo 
during  this  time  was  examining  with  great 
interest  the  little  steps  and  projections  on  the 
side  of  the  coach  by  which  he  expected  that 
he  and  Mr.  George  were  to  climb  up  to  their 
places. 

It  turned  out  in  the  end,  however,  that  he 
was  disappointed  in  his  expectation  of  having 
a  good  climb;  for,  when  the  conductor  was 
ready  for  the  banquette  passengers  to  take 
their  places,  he  brought  the  step  ladder  and 
planted  it  against  the  side  of  the  vehicle,  and 
Mr.  George  and  Rollo  went  up  as  easily  as 
they  would  have  gone  upstairs. 

When  the  passengers  were  seated  the  step 
ladder  was  taken  away,  and  a  moment  after- 


60  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

ward  the  postilion  started  the  horses  forward, 
and  the  ponderous  vehicle  began  to  move  down 
the  archway,  the  clattering  of  the  horses' 
hoofs  and  the  lumbering  noise  of  the  wheels 
sounding  very  loud  in  consequence  of  the 
echoes  and  reverberations  produced  by  the 
sides  and  vaulting  of  the  archway.  As  soon 
as  the  diligence  reached  the  street  the  postilion 
began  to  crack  his  whip  to  the  right  and  left 
in  the  most  loud  and  vehement  manner,  and 
the  coach  went  thundering  on  through  the 
narrow  streets  of  the  town,  driving  everything 
from  before  it  as  if  it  were  a  railway  train 
going  express. 

"Uncle  George,"  exclaimed  Rollo,  "they 
have  forgotten  the  conductor!" 

Rollo  was,  in  fact,  quite  concerned  for  a  few 
minutes  lest  the  conductor  should  have  been 
left  behind.  He  knew  where  this  official's 
proper  seat  was;  namely,  at  the  left  end  of 
the  banquette — that  is,  at  the  right  hand ;  and 
as  he  was  not  there,  and  as  he  knew  that  all 
the  other  seats  were  full,  he  presumed,  of 
course,  that  he  had  been  left  behind.  He  was 
relieved  of  these  fears,  however,  very  soon; 
for,  to  his  great  astonishment,  he  suddenly 
perceived  the  head  of  the  conductor  coming 
up  the  side  of  the  coach,  followed  gradually  by 
the  rest  of  his  body  as  he  climbed  up  to  his 
place.  Rollo  wondered  how  he  could  manage 
to  get  on  and  climb  up,  especially  as  the  coach 
was  at  this  time  thundering  along  a  descend- 
ing portion  of  the  street  with  a  speed  and  up- 
roar that  was  terrific. 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  61 

Rollo,  though  at  first  very  much  astonished 
at  this  performance  of  the  conductor,  afterward 
ceased  to  wonder  at  it ;  for  he  found  that  the 
conductor  could  ascend  and  descend  to  and 
from  his  seat  at  any  time  without  any  difficulty, 
even  while  the  horses  were  going  at  the  top  of 
their  speed.  If  the  snapper  of  the  coachman's 
whip  got  caught  in  the  harness  so  that  he  could 
not  liberate  it,  as  it  often  did  on  the  road,  the 
conductor  would  climb  down,  run  forward  to 
the  horses,  set  the  snapper  free,  fall  back  to 
the  coach,  catch  hold  of  the  side  and  climb  up, 
the  coachman  cracking  his  whip  as  soon  as  it 
was  freed,  and  urging  on  his  horses  to  a  gallop, 
without  troubling  himself  at  all  to  consider  how 
the  conductor  was  to  get  up  again. 

But  to  return  to  the  story.  When  Rollo 
found  that  the  conductor  was  safe  he  amused 
himself  by  looking  to  the  right  and  left  into 
the  windows  of  the  houses  at  the  second  story. 
His  seat  was  so  high  that  he  could  do  this  very 
easily.  Many  of  these  windows  were  open, 
and  persons  were  sitting  at  them,  sewing  or 
reading.  At  some  of  them  groups  of  children 
were  standing.  They  were  looking  out  to  see 
the  diligence  go  by.  The  street  was  so  nar- 
row that  Rollo  found  himself  very  near  these 
persons  as  he  passed  by. 

"A  little  nearer,"  said  he  to  his  uncle 
George,  "and  I  could  shake  hands  with  them. " 

In  a  very  few  minutes  the  coach  passed 
under  a  great  arched  gateway  leading  through 
the  wall  of  the  city,  and  thence  over  a  sort  of 
drawbridge  which  spanned  the  moat.     Imme- 


62  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

diately  afterward  it  entered  a  region  of  smooth, 
g-reen  fields,  and  pretty  rural  houses,  and 
gardens,  which  presented  on  every  side  very 
charming  pictures  to  the  view. 

"Now,  uncle  George,"  said  Rollo,  "won't 
we  have  a  magnificent  ride?" 

Rollo  was  not  disappointed  in  his  anticipa- 
tions. He  found  the  ride  to  Berne  a  very 
magnificent  one  indeed.  The  road  was  smooth 
and  hard  as  a  floor.  From  side  to  side  it  was 
flat  and  level,  and  all  the  ascents  which  it 
made  were  so  gradual  that  the  horses  trotted 
on  at  their  full  speed,  without  any  cessation, 
sweeping  around  long  and  graceful  curves, 
which  brought  continually  into  view  new  land- 
scapes, each  one,  as  it  seemed,  more  varied  and 
beautiful  than  the  one  which  had  preceded  it. 
From  his  lofty  seat  on  the  banquette  Rollo 
looked  abroad  over  a  very  wide  extent  of 
country;  and  when  the  coach  stopped  at  the 
villages  or  post  houses  to  change  horses,  he 
could  look  down  with  great  advantage  upon 
the  fresh  teams  as  they  were  brought  out  and 
upon  the  groups  of  hostlers  and  post  boys 
employed  in  shifting  the  harness.  He  could 
hear,  too,  all  that  they  said,  though  they  gen- 
erally talked  so  fast,  and  mingled  their  words 
with  so  much  laughter  and  fun,  that  Rollo 
found  that  he  could  understand  but  little. 

Rollo  was  particularly  struck,  as  he  was 
whirled  swiftly  along  the  road,  by  the  appear- 
ance of  the  Swiss  houses.  They  were  very 
large, and  were  covered  with  a  very  broad  roof, 
which  extended  so  far  over  the  walls  on  every 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  63 

side  as  to  appear  like  a  great,  square,  broad- 
brimmed  hat.  Under  this  roof  were  platforms 
projecting  from  the  house,  one  on  each  story, 
like  piazzas.  These  piazzas  were  very  broad. 
They  were  bordered  by  balustrades  on  the 
outer  edge,  and  were  used  for  sheds,  store 
houses  and  tool  rooms.  There  were  wood 
piles,  wagons,  harrows,  and  other  farming  im- 
plements, bundles  of  straw,  and  stones  piled 
up  here  and  there  upon  them.  In  fact,  the 
Swiss  cottager  has  his  house,  and  barn,  and 
sheds,  and  outhouses  all  under  one  roof;  and 
what  there  is  not  room  for  within  he  stores 
without  upon  these  platforms. 

These  houses  were  situated  in  the  midst  of 
the  most  beautiful  fields  and  gardens,  the 
whole  forming  a  series  of  very  charming  land- 
scapes. The  view,  too,  as  seen  in  many  places 
along  the  road,  was  bounded  at  the  south  by 
a  long  line  of  snow-covered  mountains,  which 
glittered  brilliantly  in  the  sun  and  imparted 
an  inexpressible  fascination  to  the  prospect. 

The  diligence  arrived  at  the  city  of  Berne 
near  night,  and  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  re- 
mained in  that  city  until  the  next  day  at  noon. 
Rollo  was  extremely  interested  in  walking 
about  the  streets  in  the  morning.  In  almost 
all  the  streets  of  Berne  the  second  stories  of 
the  houses  are  extended  over  the  sidewalks, 
the  superincumbent  masonry  being  supported 
by  massive  square  pillars,  built  up  from  the 
edge  of  the  sidewalk  below,  and  by  arches 
above.  Of  course,  in  going  along  the  sidewalk 
the  passenger  is  sheltered  by  the  roof  above 


64  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

him,  and  in  the  worst  weather  he  can  go  all 
over  the  city  without  being  exposed  to  the 
rain  excepting  at  the  street  crossings.  This 
arrangement  is  a  very  convenient  one,  cer- 
tainly, for  rainy  weather;  but  it  gives  the 
streets  a  very  gloomy  and  forbidding  appear- 
ance at  other  times. 

Still  Rollo  was  very  much  amused  in  walk- 
ing along  under  these  arcades;  the  more  so 
because,  in  addition  to  the  shops  in  the  build- 
ings themselves,  there  were  usually  stalls  and 
stands,  between  and  around  the  pillars,  filled 
with  curious  things  of  all  sorts,  which  were 
for  sale ;  so  that  in  walking  along  he  had  a 
display  of  goods  on  both  sides  of  him.  These 
goods  consisted  of  toys,  books,  pictures,  tools, 
implements,  and  curiosities,  including  a  mul- 
titude of  things  which  Rollo  had  never  seen 
or  heard  of  before. 

Berne  is  famous  for  bears.  The  bear  is,  in 
fact,  the  emblem  of  the  city,  and  of  the  canton, 
or  province,  in  which  Berne  is  situated.  There 
is  a  story  that  in  very  ancient  times,  when 
Berchtold,  the  original  founder  of  the  city, 
was  beginning  to  build  the  walls,  a  monstrous 
bear  came  out  of  the  woods  to  attack  him. 
Berchtold,  with  the  assistance  of  the  men  who 
were  at  work  with  him  on  the  walls,  killed  the 
bear.  They  gloried  greatly  in  this  exploit, 
and  they  preserved  the  skin  and  claws  of  the 
bear  for  a  long  time  as  the  trophy  of  their 
victory.  Afterward  they  made  the  bear  their 
emblem.  They  painted  the  figure  of  the 
animal  on  their  standards.     They  made  images 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  65 

and  effigies  of  him  to  ornament  their  streets, 
and  squares,  and  fountains,  and  public  build- 
ings. They  stamped  the  image  of  him  on  their 
coins;  and,  to  this  day,  you  see  figures  of  the 
bear  everywhere  in  Berne.  Carved  images  of 
Bruin  in  every  attitude  are  for  sale  in  the 
shops ;  and,  not  contented  with  these  lifeless 
symbols,  the  people  of  Berne  for  a  long  time 
had  a  pit,  or  den,  similar  to  those  in  the  Gar- 
den of  Plants  at  Paris,  where  they  kept  living 
specimens  for  a  long  time.*  This  den  was 
just  without  the  gates  of  the  city.  The  guide 
book  which  Rollo  read  as  he  was  coming  into 
Berne,  to  see  what  it  said  about  the  city,  stated 
that  there  was  one  bear  in  the  garden  at  that 
time;  and  he  wished  very  much  to  go  and  see 
it,  but  he  did  not  have  a  very  convenient  oppor- 
tunity. 

*See  Rollo  in  Paris  for  an  account  of  these  dens  for 
bears  in  the  Garden  of  Plants. 


5    Switzerland 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    VALLEY    OF    THE    AAR. 

After  spending  several  hours  in  Berne  and 
wondering'  greatly  at  the  many,  strange  things 
which  they  saw  there,  Mr.  George  and  Rollo 
took  their  passage  in  another  diligence  for 
Thun,  which  was  a  town  still  farther  in  toward 
the  heart  of  Switzerland  on  the  way  to  the 
Interlachen.  It  took  only  three  or  four  hours 
to  go  to  Thun.  The  town,  they  found,  was 
small,  compact,  surrounded  by  walls,  and  very 
delightfully  situated  at  the  end  of  a  long  lake, 
which  extended  from  that  point  very  far  in 
among  the  mountains.  There  was  one  thing 
very  remarkable  about  Thun,  at  least  it  seemed 
very  remarkable  to  Rollo,  although  he  found 
afterward  that  it  was  a  common  thing  in  Switz- 
erland; and  that  was,  that  the  hotels  were  all 
outside  the  town. 

There  was  reason  in  this;  for  the  town — 
though  it  was  a  very  curious  and  romantic 
place,  with  a  church  on  a  terraced  hill  at  one 
end  of  it,  surrounded  with  a  beautifully  orna- 
mented churchyard,  with  seats  and  bowers  here 
and  there  at  the  corners  of  it,  which  over- 
looked the  country  and  commanded  charming 
views  of  the  lake  and  mountains —  was  still, 
in  the  main,  very  contracted  and  confined,  and 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  67 

hotels  would  not  be  pleasantly  situated  in  it. 
A  little  beyond  the  town,  however,  on  the 
margin  of  the  lake,  was  a  delightful  region  of 
gardens  and  pleasure  grounds,  with  four  or 
five  very  handsome  hotels  among  them.  Mr. 
George  and  Rollo  stopped  to  dine  at  one  of 
these  hotels.  From  the  windows  of  it  there 
were  the  most  brilliant  and  charming  prospects 
of  the  lake  and  the  surrounding  mountains  on 
one  side,  and  on  the  other  a  view  of  the  town 
and  of  two  or  three  very  pretty  little  steam- 
boats lying  at  a  pier. 

Behind  the  hotel  the  land  very  soon  ascended 
rapidly,  the  ascent  terminating  at  last  in  crags 
and  precipices  which  towered  at  a  vast  height 
above.  Among  these  heights  Rollo  saw  a  sort 
of  pavilion,  built  on  a  small  projecting  point 
of  a  hill,  four  or  five  hundred  feet,  perhaps, 
above  the  hotel. 

"Do  you  think  anybody  can  get  up  there?" 
said  he  to  his  uncle  George. 

They  were  standing,  when  Rollo  said  this, 
on  the  back  piazza  of  the  hotel — a  very  beauti- 
ful place,  looking  out  upon  green  lawns  and 
gardens. 

"Certainly,"  said  Mr.  George.  "They 
would  not  have  built  such  a  lookout  as  that 
without  making  a  way  to  get  to  it. ' ' 

"Then  let's  go  up  there,"  said  Rollo,  "and 
see  what  we  can  see.  " 

"Very  well,"  said  Mr.  George;  "lead  the 
way,  and  I  will  follow. " 

"Well,  come,"  said  Rollo,  moving  on.     "I 


68  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

am  not  sure  that  I  can  find  the  way;  but  I'll 
try. ' ' 

So  saying,  Rollo  chose  from  among  several 
broad  and  smooth  gravel  walks  which  he  saw 
diverging  from  the  house  in  various  directions, 
among  the  groves  and  copses  of  shrubbery 
that  ornamented  the  grounds  behind  it,  the 
one  which  seemed  to  turn  most  nearly  in  the 
right  direction;  and,  running  along  before,  he 
was  soon  out  of  sight  of  the  hotel.  The  path 
meandered  gracefully  among  shrubs,  and 
flowers,  and  pretty  green  openings  a  little 
way,  and  then  began  to  ascend  the  hill,  some- 
times in  a  winding  course  and  sometimes  by 
zigzags.  There  were  seats  placed  here  and 
there  at  proper  points  for  rest.  At  length 
both  Rollo  and  Mr.  George  were  surprised  to 
find  coming  suddenly  into  view  a  small  build- 
ing, which  stood  in  a  very  romantic  and  pictur- 
esque spot  about  half  way  up  the  hill,  which 
proved,  on  examination,  to  be  a  little  chapel. 
It  was  an  Episcopal  chapel,  built  here  by  the 
proprietor  of  the  hotel  for  the  accommodation 
of  his  English  guests  on  Sundays.  There  are 
a  great  many  English  travelers  in  Switzerland, 
more  perhaps  from  that  nation  than  from  any 
other,  and  the  English  people  are  very  much 
pleased  with  the  opportunity  to  worship  God, 
when  in  foreign  lands,  according  to  the  rites 
and  usages  of  their  own  national  church. 
Americans,  on  the  other  hand,  when  traveling, 
generally  prefer  to  attend  churches  in  which 
the  worship  is  conducted  according  to  the  usages 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  69 

of  the  people  in  whose  country  they  chance 
to  be. 

After  looking  at  the  little  English  chapel  as 
long  as  they  wished,  our  two  travelers  went 
on  up  the  path.  The  ascent  soon  became  very 
steep,  and  the  way  led  through  close  woods, 
which  allowed  of  no  opportunity  to  see,  ex- 
cept that  now  and  then  a  brief  glimpse  was 
obtained  of  the  hotel,  with  the  gardens  and 
grounds  around  it,  and  the  gentlemen  and 
ladies  walking  upon  the  piazza  in  the  rear  of  it. 

After  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour  of  hard 
climbing  up  a  wild  and  romantic  but  very 
smooth  and  well-made  path  the  two  young 
gentlemen  reached  the  pavilion.  Here  a 
boundless  and  most  magnificent  prospect  was 
opened  before  them.  Rollo  was  bewildered 
with  astonishment  and  delight;  and  even  Mr. 
George,  who  was  usually  very  cool  and  quiet 
on  such  occasions,  seemed  greatly  pleased.  I 
shall  not,  however,  attempt  to  describe  the 
view,  for,  though  a  fine  view  from  an  elevated 
point  among  lakes  and  mountains  is  a  very 
exciting  thing  actually  to  witness  and  enjoy, 
it  is  by  no  means  an  interesting  thing  to 
describe. 

"What  a  magnificent  prospect!"  said  Rollo. 

Rollo,  as  he  said  this,  was  looking  down  at 
the  more  near  and  distinctly  detailed  objects 
which  were  to  be  seen  directly  below  him  at 
the  bottom  of  the  hill,  toward  the  right — such 
as  the  hotels,  the  gardens,  the  roads,  the  pier, 
the  steamboats,  and  the  town.  The  attention 
of  Mr.  George,  however,  was  attracted  by  the 


70  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

more  grand  and  sublime  features  of  the  view 
which  were  to  be  seen  in  the  other  direction — ■ 
the  lake,  the  forests,  and  the  mountains.  The 
mountains  that  were  near  were  darkened  by 
the  groves  of  evergreens  that  clothed  their 
sides,  and  some  of  them  were  made  more  som- 
bre still  by  the  shadows  of  floating  clouds; 
while  over  these  there  towered  the  glittering 
summits  of  more  distant  ranges,  white  with 
everlasting  snow. 

"How  cold  they  look!"  said  Mr.  George; 
"how  icy  cold!" 

"How  little  they  look!  how  very  little!  See, 
uncle  George,"  said  Rollo,  pointing;  "they 
are  really  good  large  steamboats,  and  you 
would  think  they  were  only  playthings." 

"There  are  some  men  walking  along  the 
road,"  continued  Rollo,   "just  like  little  dots." 

"See  the  banks  of  snow  on  that  mountain, 
Rollo!"  said  Mr.  George.  "They  look  like 
drifts  of  dry,  light  snow,  as  they  shine  in  the 
sun  on  a  bitter  cold  winter  day.  " 

"Why  doesn't  it  melt?"  asked  Rollo. 

"Because  it  is  up  so  high,"  said  Mr.  George. 
"As  you  go  up  in  the  air  from  the  surface  of 
the  earth  the  air  grows  colder  and  colder,  until 
at  last,  when  you  get  up  to  a  certain  height,  it 
is  cold  enough  to  freeze." 

"Is  it  so  ever}'' where?"  asked  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George."  If  you  were  to  put 
some  water  into  a  vial  and  tie  it  to  the  tail  of 
a  kite,  and  send  it  up  into  the  air  high  enough 
the  water  would  freeze,  and  when  it  came  down 
you  would  find  the  water  turned  into  ice. " 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  71 

"Should  I?"  asked  Rollo.  "Would  it  if  I 
were  to  send  the  kite  up  in  America?" 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "anywhere,  all  over 
the  earth." 

"I  mean  to  try  it,"  said  Rollo. 

"You  can't  try  it  very  well,"  replied  Mr. 
George;  for  you  could  not  easily  send  a  kite  up 
high  enough.     It  would  take  a  very  long  time. ' ' 

"How  long?"  asked  Rollo. 

"Why  that  depends  upon  what  part  of  the 
earth  it  is  that  you  make  the  experiment  in," 
replied  Mr.  George.  "At  the  equator,  where 
the  sun  is  very  hot,  you  would  have  to  go  up 
very  high.  In  temperate  regions,  as  in  Switz- 
erland or  in  most  parts  of  America,  you  would 
not  have  to  go  up  so  high;  and  farther  north, 
near  the  pole,  it  is  only  necessary  to  go  up  a 
very  little  way. ' ' 

"And  how  high  must  we  go  up  in  Switzer- 
land?" asked  Rollo. 

"About  eight  or  nine  thousand  feet,  I  be- 
lieve," said  Mr.  George.  Some  of  the  Alpine 
summits  are  sixteen  thousand  feet  high;  and 
so  the  ice  and  snow  lie  upon  the  upper  portions 
of  them  all  the  time." 

The  young  gentlemen  remained  some  time 
longer  in  the  pavilion,  gazing  upon  the  stupend- 
ous scenery  around  them,  and  looking  down 
the  lake  which  lay  before  them  in  the  bottom  of 
a  deep  and  narrow  valley  and  extended  in 
among  the  mountains  much  farther  than  they 
could  see. 

"We  are  going  along  that  lake,"  said  Rollo, 
"are  we  not?" 


72  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George;  "it  is  the  Lake  of 
Thun." 

"We  are  going  in  one  of  the  steamboats  that 
are  lying  at  the  pier,  are  we  not?"  said  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George;  "unless  you  would 
prefer  going  along  the  shore." 

"Is  there  a  road  along  the  shore?"  asked 
Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George;  "there  are  two,  I 
believe,  one  on  each  side  of  the  lake.  These 
roads  run  along  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains, 
far  enough,  however,  above  the  level  of  the 
lake  to  enable  us  to  enjoy  excellent  views  of  it. 
But  we  cannot  see  the  mountains  from  it  as 
well  as  we  can  from  the  lake  itself." 

"Then,"  said  Rollo,  "if  we  go  by  the  road 
we  can  see  the  lake  best;  and  if  we  go  by 
the  steamboat  we  can  see  the  mountains  best." 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George;  "that  is  the  state 
of  the  case,  exactly." 

' '  Then  I  think  we  had  better  go  by  the  boat, ' ' 
said  Rollo;  "for  I  would  rather  see  the  moun- 
tains." 

"So  would  I,"  rejoined  Mr.  George.  "Be- 
sides, there  will  be  plenty  of  occasions  on 
which  we  shall  be  obliged  to  go  by  land ;  there- 
fore we  had  better  go  by  water  when  we  can, 
in  order  to  have  a  variety.  And,  if  we  are 
going  in  the  steamer,  we  must  go  back  to  the 
hotel ;  for  it  is  almost  time  for  the  steamer  to 
sail. ' ' 

So  Mr.  George  led  the  way,  and  Rollo  fol- 
lowed, down  the  path  by  which  they  had  come 
up.     As   they   thus   walked   down    they    con- 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  73 

tinued  the  conversation  which  they  had  com- 
menced in  the  pavilion. 

"What  shall  we  come  to  when  we  get  to  the 
end  of  the  lake?"  asked  Rollo.  "Does  the 
lake  reach  to  the  end  of  the  valley?" 

"No,"  said  Mr.  George.  "The  valley  is 
about  fifty  miles  long,  I  suppose,  and  this  lake 
is  only  about  fifteen  miles  long;  but  there  is 
another  in  the  same  valley  a  little  farther  on. 
The  valley  is  the  valley  of  the  Aar.  That  is  the 
name  of  the  stream  which  flows  through  it.  It 
is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  valleys  in  Switz- 
erland. I  have  been  studying  it  in  the  guide 
book  and  on  the  map.  It  is  about  fifty  miles 
long,  and  it  winds  in  a  serpentine  manner  be- 
tween two  lofty  ranges  of  mountains,  so  steep 
and  high  that  it  is  not  possible  to  make  any 
road  over  them." 

"None  at  all?"  asked  Rollo. 

"No,"  replied  Mr.  George.  "They  cannot 
make  any  road — nothing  but  bridle  paths.  The 
mountains,  too,  that  border  the  valley  along 
the  sides  close  across  at  the  head  of  it ;  so  that 
if  you  go  up  the  valley  at  all  you  cannot  get  out 
of  it  without  climbing  over  the  mountains, 
unless,  indeed,  you  are  willing  to  come  back 
the  same  way  that  you  went." 

"I  would  rather  climb  over  the  mountains," 
said  Rollo. 

"So  would  I,"  said  Mr.  George.  "The 
beginning  of  this  valley,"  continued  Mr. 
George,  "is  in  the  very  heart  of  the  most 
mountainous  part  of  Switzerland,  and  the  River 
Aar  commences   there  in  prodigious  cascades 


74  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

and  waterfalls,  which  come  down  over  the  cliffs 
and  precipices  or  gush  out  from  enormous  crev- 
ices and  chasms,  and  make  quite  a  river  at  the 
very  beginning." 

"Can  we  go  there  and  see  them?"  said  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  replied  Mr.  George;  "I  mean  to  go 
and  see  them.  The  place  is  called  Meyringen. 
The  cascades  and  waterfalls  at  Meyringen  are 
wonderful.  One  of  them,  the  guide  book  says, 
makes  dreadful  work  in  times  of  flood.  It 
comes  out  from  a  great  chasm  in  the  rocks  in 
the  face  of  a  precipice  at  a  vast  height  from 
the  ground;  and,  in  times  of  flood,  it  brings 
down  such  a  mass  of  sand,  gravel,  stones,  rub- 
bish, and  black  mud  as  sometimes  to  threaten 
to  overwhelm  the  village. ' ' 

"Is  there  a  village  there?"  asked  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George;  "the  village  of 
Meyringen.  This  waterfall  comes  down  out  of 
the  mountain  just  back  of  the  village ;  and  they 
have  had  to  build  up  an  immense  wall,  a  quar- 
ter of  a  mile  long  and  twenty  or  thirty  feet 
high,  to  keep  the  torrent  of  mud  and  sand  out 
of  the  streets.  Once  it  broke  through  and  filled 
up  the  church  four  feet  deep  all  over  the  floor 
with  mud,  and  gravel,  and  stones.  Some  of  the 
stones  were  bigger  than  your  head." 

Rollo  was  very  much  interested  in  hearing 
this  account  of  the  Fall  of  Alpbach, — for  that 
was  the  name  of  this  unmanageable  cataract, 
— and  expressed  a  very  strong  desire  to  go  to 
Meyringen  and  see  it. 

"We  will  go,"  said  Mr.  George.  "It  lies  at 
the   head  of  the  valley  of  the  Aar,  which  we 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  75 

are  now  entering.  The  River  Aar,  after  being 
formed  by  these  cataracts  and  cascades,  flows 
through  the  valley,  making  two  long  lakes  in 
its  course.  This  Lake  of  Thun  is  the  second 
one.  The  other  is  the  Lake  of  Brienz.  The 
upper  end  of  the  Lake  of  Thun  is  a  few  miles 
only  from  the  lower  end  of  the  Lake  of  Brienz; 
and  Interlachen  is  between  the  two." 

About  an  hour  after  this  conversation  our  two 
travelers  might  have  been  sitting  together  upon 
the  deck  of  the  little  steamer  which  was  pad- 
dling its  way  merrily  along  the  lake,  and  occu- 
pying themselves  in  viewing  and  talking  about 
the  extraordinary  spectacle  presented  by  the 
slopes  of  the  mountains  which  bordered  the 
lake  on  either  side,  and  which  seemed  to  shut 
the  lake  in,  as  it  were,  between  two  immense 
walls  of  green. 

Rollo  was  extremely  interested,  as  he  sailed 
along,  in  viewing  these  mountain  slopes, 
exploring  the  landscape  carefully  in  every  part, 
studying  out  all  the  objects  of  interest  which  it 
contained — the  forests,  the  cultivated  fields, 
the  great  Swiss  cottages,  the  pasturages,  the 
little  chalets,  the  zigzag  paths  leading  up  and 
down,  and  all  the  other  picturesque  and  strik- 
ing characteristics  of  a  Swiss  landscape. 

The  slopes  were  very  beautiful,  and  densely 
inhabited;  and  they  were  really  very  steep, 
though  they  looked  much  steeper  than  they 
were,  as  all  hills  and  slopes  do  to  a  person  look- 
ing upon  them  from  below  and  facing  them. 

"It  seems,"  said  Rollo  to  Mr.  George,  "as  if 
two  broad  strips  of  green  country  were  set  up 


76  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

on  edge  for  us  to  see  as  we  are  sailing  along 
"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  with  all  the  houses, 
farms,  pasturages,  flocks  of  sheep,  and  herds  of 
cattle  clinging  to  the  sides  of  them.  " 

The  chief  charm,  however,  of  the  views 
which  presented  themselves  to  the  young  trav- 
elers as  they  glided  along  the  lake  was  the 
glittering  refulgence  of  the  snow-clad  peaks 
which  appeared  here  and  there  through  open- 
ings among  the  nearer  mountains.  The  view 
of  these  peaks  was  occasionally  obstructed  by 
masses  of  vapor  which  were  floating  along  the 
tops  of  the  mountain  ranges;  but  still  they 
were  seen  frequently  enough  to  fill  the  minds 
both  of  Rollo  and  Mr.  George  with  wonder  and 
delight. 

After  gazing  at  this  scenery  for  nearly  an 
hour  until  his  curiosity  in  respect  to  it  was  in 
some  measure  satisfied,  Rollo  began  to  turn  his 
attention  to  his  fellow-travelers  _  on  board  the 
steamer.  These  travelers  were'seated  singly 
or  in  groups  about  the  deck  of  the  little  vessel, 
and  they  were  all  tourists,  journeying  for 
pleasure.  Here  was  a  small  group  of  young 
men — students  apparently — with  knapsacks  on 
their  backs,  spyglasses  strapped  to  their  sides, 
and  maps  and  guide  books  in  their  hands. 
There  was  a  young  lady  seated  with  her  father, 
both  dressed  for  the  mountains,  and  gazing 
with  curiosity  and  wonder  on  the  views  pre- 
sented along  the  shores  of  the  lake.  In  another 
place  was  a  family  of  parents  and  children — 
the  father  studying  a  map  which  he  had  spread 
open  upon  his  knees;  the  mother  sitting  by  his 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  7? 

side,  silent  and  thoughtful,  as  if  her  mind  was 
far  away,  dwelling,  perhaps,  upon  the  little 
ones  which  had  been  left  at  home  because  they 
were  too  young  to  be  taken  on  such  a  tour. 
Some  of  these  people  were  talking  French, 
some  English,  and  some  German.  Rollo  looked 
about  upon  these  various  groups  for  a  time, 
and  then  said, — 

"Are  all  these  travelers  going  to  see  the 
mountains,  do  you  suppose,  uncle  George?" 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George;  "I  suppose  so. 
There  is  very  little  traveling  in  Switzerland 
except  pleasure  traveling.  I  presume  they  are 
all  going  to  see  the  mountains  and  the  other 
scenery  of  the  country." 

"I  should  not  think  that  the  ladies  could 
climb  up  the  mountains  very  high,"  said 
Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "they  can;  for  in 
almost  all  places  where  people  wish  to  go  there 
are  excellent  paths.  Where  it  is  too  steep  for 
roads  the  mountaineers  make  zigzag  paths, 
not  only  for  travelers,  but  for  themselves,  in 
order  that  they  may  go  up  and  down  to  their 
chalets  and  pasturages.  The  people  of  the 
country  have  been  making  and  improving 
these  paths  now  for  two  thousand  years  or 
more,  and  they  have  got  them  at  last  in  very 
excellent  condition ;  so  that,  except  the  steep- 
ness, they  are  very  easy  and  very  comfortable. " 

"Why,    uncle  George,"   said  Rollo,  "look!" 

So  saying,  Rollo  pointed  his  finger  out  over 
the  water.  The  mountains  had  suddenly  and 
entirely  disappeared.      The  vapors  and  clouds 


78  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

which  they  had  seen  floating  among  them  half 
an  hour  before  had  become  dense  and  continu- 
ous, and  had,  moreover,  settled  down  over  the 
whole  face  of  the  country  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  shut  out  the  mountains  wholly  from  view. 
Nothing  was  to  be  seen  but  the  water  of  the 
lake,  with  a  margin  of  low  and  level  but 
beautiful  country  along  the  shores  of  it. 

In  fact,  there  was  nothing  but  the  smallness 
of  the  steamer  and  the  costumes  and  character 
of  the  passengers  to  prevent  Rollo  and  Mr. 
George  from  supposing  that  they  were  steam- 
ing it  from  New  York  to  Albany,  up  the  North 
River,  in  America- 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  79 


CHAPTER  VII. 

INTERLACHEN. 

About  eight  o'clock  on  the  morning  after  our 
travelers  arrived  at  Interlachen  Rollo  awoke, 
and,  rising  from  his  bed,  he  walked  to  the 
window  and  looked  out,  expecting  to  find  be- 
fore him  a  very  grand  prospect  of  Alpine  scen- 
ery ;  but  there  was  nothing  of  the  kind  to  be 
seen. 

Before  the  house  was  a  garden,  with  a  broad 
gravel  walk  leading  out  through  it  to  the  road. 
On  each  side  of  this  walk  were  parterres  of 
shrubbery  and  flowers.  There  were  also  two 
side  approaches,  wide  enough  for  roads.  They 
came  from  the  main  road  through  great  open 
gates,  at  a  little  distance  to  the  right  and  left 
of  the  hotel.  The  main  road,  which  was  broad 
and  perfectly  level,  extended  in  front  of  the 
house;  and  two  or  three  Swiss  peasants,  in 
strange  costume,  were  passing  by.  Beyond 
were  green  and  level  fields,  with  fruit  and  forest 
trees  rising  here  and  there  among  them,  form- 
ing a  very  rich  and  attractive  landscape.  The 
sky  was  covered  with  clouds,  though  they  were 
very  fleecy  and  bright,  and  in  one  place  the 
sun  seemed  just  ready  to  break  through. 

"I  thought  Interlachen  was  among  the  moun- 


SO  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

tains,"  said  Rollo  to  himself;  "and  here  I  am 
in  the  middle  of  a  flat  plain. 

"I  will  go  and  see  uncle  George,"  he  con- 
tinued after  a  moment's  pause,  "and  ask  him 
what  it  means." 

So  Rollo  opened  the  door  of  his  room  and 
went  out  into  what  in  America  would  be  called 
the  entry,  or  hall.  He  found  himself  in  a  long 
corridor  paved  with  stone,  and  having  broad 
stone  staircases  leading  up  and  down  from  it 
to  the  different  stories.  In  one  place  there  was 
a  passage  way  which  led  to  a  window  that 
seemed  to  be  on  the  back  side  of  the  hotel. 
Rollo  went  there  to  look  out,  in  order  to  see 
what  the  prospect  might  be  in  that  direc- 
tion. 

He  saw  first  the  gardens  and  grounds  of  the 
hotel,  extending  for  a  short  distance  in  the 
rear  of  the  building,  and  beyond  them  he  ob- 
tained glimpses  of  a  rapidly  running  stream. 
The  water  was  very  turbid.  It  boiled  and 
whirled  incessantly  as  it  swept  swiftly  along 
the  channel. 

"Ah,"  said  Rollo,  "that  is  the  River  Aar,  I 
suppose,  flowing  through  Interlachen  from  one 
lake  to  the  other.  I  thought  I  should  see  it 
somewhere  here ;  but  I  did  not  know  whether 
it  was  before  the  hotels  or  behind  them." 

A  short  distance  beyond  the  stream  Rollo 
saw  the  lower  part  of  a  perpendicular  precipice 
of  gray  rock.  All  except  the  lower  part  of 
this  precipice  was  concealed  by  the  fogs  and 
clouds,  which  seemed  to  settle  down  so  low 
upon  the  landscape  in  all  directions  as  to  con- 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  81 

ceal  almost  everything  but  the  surface  of  the 
ground. 

"I  wonder  how  high  that  precipice  is,"  said 
Rollo  to  himself. 

"I  wonder  whether  I  could  climb  up  to  the 
top  of  it,"  he  continued,  still  talking  to  him- 
self, "if  I  could  only  find  some  way  to  get 
across  the  river?  There  must  be  some  way,  I 
suppose.      Perhaps  there  is  a  bridge." 

Rollo  then  turned  his  eye  upward  to  look  at 
the  clouds.  In  one  place  there  seemed  to  be 
a  break  among  them,  and  the  fleecy  masses 
around  the  break  were  slowly  moving  along. 
The  place  where  Rollo  was  looking  was  about 
the  middle  of  the  sky;  that  is,  about  midway 
between  the  horizon  and  the  zenith.  While 
Rollo  was  looking  at  this  break,  which  seemed, 
while  he  looked  at  it,  to  brighten  up  and  open 
more  and  more,  he  saw  suddenly,  to  his  utter 
amazement,  a  large  green  tree  burst  into  view 
in  the  midst  of  it,  and  then  disappear  again  a 
moment  afterward  as  a  fresh  mass  of  cloudy 
vapor  drifted  over.  Rollo  was  perfectly  be- 
wildered with  astonishment.  To  see  a  green 
tree,  clear  and  distinct  in  form  and  bright  with 
the  beams  of  the  sun  which  just  at  that  in- 
stant caught  upon  it,  breaking  out  to  view  sud- 
denly high  up  among  the  clouds  of  the  sky, 
seemed  truly  an  astonishing  spectacle.  Rollo 
had  scarcely  recovered  from  the  first  emotion  of 
his  surprise  before  the  clouds  parted  again, 
wider  than  before,  and  brought  into  view,  first 
a  large  mass  of  foliage,  which  formed  the  termi- 
nation of  a  grove  of  trees ;  then  a  portion  of  a 

6    Switzerland 


82  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

smooth,  green  field,  with  a  flock  of  sheep  feed- 
ing upon  it,  clinging  apparently  to  the  steep 
slope  like  flies  to  a  wall ;  and  finally  a  house, 
with  a  little  blue  smoke  curling  from  the  chim- 
ney. Rollo  was  perfectly  beside  himself  with 
astonishment  and  delight  at  this  spectacle ;  and 
he  determined  immediately  to  go  and  ask  his 
uncle  to  come  and  see. 

He  accordingly  left  the  window  and  made  all 
haste  to  his  uncle's  door.  He  knocked.  His 
uncle  said,  "Come  in. "  Rollo  opened  the  door. 
His  uncle  was  standing  by  the  window  of  his 
room,  looking  out.  This  was  on  the  front  side 
of  the  hotel. 

' ' Uncle  George ! ' '  said  Rollo,  4 'Uncle  George. 
Come  and  look  out  with  me  at  the  back  win- 
dow. There  is  a  flock  of  sheep  feeding  in  a 
green  field  away  up  in  the  sky!" 

"Come  and  look  here!"  said  Mr.  George. 

So  Rollo  went  to  the  window  where  Mr. 
George  was  standing,  and  his  astonishment  at 
what  he  saw  was  even  greater  than  before. 
The  clouds  had  separated  into  great  fleecy 
masses  and  were  slowly  drifting  away,  while 
through  the  openings  that  appeared  in  them 
there  were  seen  bright  and  beautiful  views  of 
groves,  green  pasturages,  smiling  little  ham- 
lets and  villages,  green  fields,  and  here  a  d 
there  dark  forests  of  evergreen  tree:;,  with 
peaks  of  rocks  or  steep  precipices  peeping  out 
among  them.  At  one  place,  through  an  open- 
ing or  gap  in  the  nearer  mountains,  there  could 
be  seen  far  back  toward  the  horizon  the  broad 
sides  and  towering  peak  of  a  distant  summit, 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  83 

which  seemed  to  be  wholly  formed  of  vast 
masses  of  ice  and  snow,  and  which  glittered 
with  an  inexpressible  brilliancy  under  the  rays 
of  the  morning  sun. 

"That  is  the  Jungfrau, "  said  Mr.  George. 

"That  great  icy  mountain?"  said  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"Can  we  get  up  to  the  top  of  it?"  asked 
Rollo. 

"No,"  said  Mr.  George.  "People  tried  for 
more  than  a  thousand  years  to  get  to  the  top 
of  the  Jungfrau  before  they  could  succeed." 

"And  did  they  succeed  at  last?"  asked  Rollo. 

"Yes, "replied  Mr.  George.  "You see  there 
is  a  sort  of  goatlike  animal,  called  the  chamois, 
which  the  peasants  and  mountaineers  are  very 
fond  of  hunting.  These  animals  are  great 
climbers,  and  they  get  up  among  the  highest 
peaks  and  into  the  most  dangerous  places;  and 
the  hunters,  in  going  into  such  places  after 
them,  become  at  last  very  expert  in  climbing, 
and  sometimes  they  become  ambitious  of  sur- 
passing each  other,  and  each  one  wishes  to  see 
how  high  he  can  get.  So  one  time,  about 
twenty-five  years  ago,  a  party  of  six  of  these 
hunters  undertook  to  get  to  the  top  of  the  Jung- 
frau, and  at  last  they  succeeded.  But  it  was  a 
dreadfully  difficult  and  dangerous  operation. 
It  was  fifteen  miles,  steep  climbing. 

4 '  Not  steep  climbing  all  the  way, ' '  said  Rollo. 

"No,"  said  Mr.  George,  "I  suppose  not  all 
the  way.  There  must  have  been  some  up-and- 
down  work,  and  some  perhaps  tolerably  level, 
for  the  first  ten  miles ;  but  the  last  five   must 


84  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

have  been  a  perpetual  scramble  among  rocks 
and  ice  and  over  vast  drifts  of  snow,  with  im- 
mense avalanches  thundering  down  the  moun- 
tain sides  all  around  them. ' ' 

"I  wish  I  could  go  and  see  them,"  said 
Rollo. 

"You  can  go,"  replied  Mr.  George.  "There 
is  a  most  excellent  chance  to  see  the  face  of  the 
Jungfrau  very  near;  for  there  is  another  moun- 
tain this  side  of  it,  with  a  narrow  valley  be- 
tween. This  other  mountain  is  called  the 
Wengern  Alp.  It  is  about  two-thirds  the  height 
of  the  Jungfrau,  and  is  so  near  it  that  from  the 
top  of  it,  or  near  the  top  you  can  see  the  whole 
side  of  the  Jungfrau  rising  right  before  you 
and  filling  half  the  sky,  and  you  can  see  and 
hear  the  avalanches  thundering  down  the  sides 
of  it  all  daylong." 

Rollo  was  quite  excited  at  this  account,  and 
was  very  eager  to  set  off  as  soon  as  possible  to 
go  up  the  Wengern  Alp. 

"How  do  we  get  there?"  asked  he. 

"You  see  this  great  gap  in  the  near  moun- 
tains," said  Mr.  George,  pointing. 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo. 

"That  gap,"  continued  Mr.  George,  "is  the 
mouth  of  a  valley.  I  have  been  studying  it 
out  this  morning  in  my  guide  book.  There  is 
a  good  carriage  road  leading  up  this  valley. 
It  is  called  the  valley  of  the  Lutschine,  because 
that  is  the  name  of  the  river  which  comes 
down  through  it.  In  going  up  this  valley  for 
the  first  two  or  three  miles  we  are  going 
directly  toward  the  Jungfrau." 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  85 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo.  "That  I  can  see  very 
plainly. ' ' 

This  was  indeed  very  obvious;  for  the  Jung- 
frau,  from  the  windows  of  the  hotel,  was  seen 
through  the  great  gap  in  the  near  mountains 
which  Mr.  George  had  pointed  out  as  the 
mouth  of  the  valley  of  the  Lutschine.  In  fact, 
had  it  not  been  for  that  gap  in  the  near  moun- 
tains, the  great  snow-covered  summit  could 
not  have  been  seen  from  the  hotels  at  all. 

"We  go  up  that  valley,"  continued  Mr. 
George,  "about  three  miles,  and  then  we  come 
down  to  a  fork  in  it ;  that  is,  to  a  place  where 
the  valley  divides  into  two  branches,  one  turn- 
ing off  to  the  right  and  the  other  to  the  left. 
Directly  ahead  there  is  an  enormous  precipice, 
I  don't  know  how  many  thousand  feet  high,  of 
bare  rock. 

"One  of  these  branch  valleys, "  continued 
Mr.  George,  "leads  up  to  one  side  of  the  Wen- 
gern  Alp  and  the  Jungfrau,  and  the  other  to 
the  other  side.  We  may  take  the  right-hand 
valley  and  go  up  five  or  six  miles  to  Lauter- 
brunnen,  or  we  may  take  the  left-hand  branch 
and  go  up  to  Grindelwald.  Which  way  do  you 
think  we  had  better  go?" 

"I  do  not  know,"  said  Rollo.  "Can  we  get 
up  to  the   Wengern   Alp  from   either  valley?" 

"Yes, "  said  Mr.  George.  "We  can  go  up 
from  one  of  these  valleys,  and  then,  after  stop- 
ping as  long  as  we  choose  on  the  Alp,  we  can 
continue  our  journey  and  so  come  down  into 
the  other,  and  thus  see  them  both.  One  of  the 
Valleys   is   famous  for  two  great  glaciers  that 


86  ROLLO  IN   SWITZERLAND. 

descend  into  it.  The  other  is  famous  for  im- 
mense waterfalls  that  come  down  over  the 
precipices  at  the  sides." 

"Let  us  go  first  and  see  the  waterfalls,"  said 
Rollo. 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  George,  "we  will.  We 
shall  have  to  turn  to  the  right  in  that  case  and 
go  to  Lauterbrunnen.  When  we  get  to  Laut- 
erbrunnen  we  shall  have  to  leave  our  carriage 
and  take  horses  to  go  up  to  the  Wengern  Alp. 
The  way  is  by  a  steep  path,  formed  in  zig- 
zags, right  up  the  sides  of  the  mountains." 

"How  far  is  it?"  asked  Rollo. 

"I  don't  know  precisely,"  said  Mr.  George: 
"but  it  is  a  good  many  miles.  It  takes,  at  any 
rate,  several  hours  to  go  up.  We  can  stop  at 
the  Wengern  Alp  as  long  as  we  please  and 
look  at  the  Jungfrau  and  the  avalanches,  and 
after  that  go  on  down  into  the  valley  of  Grin- 
delwald  on  the  other  side,  and  so  come  home." 

"But  how  can  we  get  our  carriage?"  asked 
Rollo. 

"O,  they  send  the  carriage  back,  I  believe," 
said  Mr.  George,  "from  Lauterbrunnen  to  the 
great  precipice  at  the  fork  of  the  valley." 

Mr.  George,  having  thus  finished  his  account 
of  the  topography  of  the  route  to  the  Wengern 
Alp,  went  away  from  the  window  and  re- 
turned to  the  table  where  he  had  been  em- 
ployed in  writing  some  letters  just  before  Rollo 
had  come  in.  Rollo  was  left  at  the  window. 
He  leaned  his  arms  upon  the  sill,  and,  looking 
down  to  the  area  below,  amused  himself  with 
observing  what  was  going  on  there. 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  87 

There  were  several  persons  standing  or 
sitting  upon  the  piazza.  Presently,  he  heard 
the  sound  of  wheels.  A  carriage  came  driving 
up  toward  the  door.  A  postilion  was  riding 
upon  one  of  the  horses.  There  were  two  ser- 
vants sitting  on  the  box;  and  there  was  a  seat 
behind,  where  another  servant  and  the  lady's 
maid  were  sitting.  The  carriage  stopped,  the 
door  was  opened,  and  a  lady  and  gentleman 
with  two  boys,  all  dressed  like  travelers,  got 
out,  and  were  ushered  into  the  house  with 
great  civility  by  the  landlord.  The  baggage 
was  taken  off  and  carried  in,  and  then  the  car- 
riage was  driven  away  round  the  corner. 

This  was  an  English  nobleman  and  his 
family,  who  were  making  the  tour  of  Switzer- 
land, and  were  going  to  spend  a  few  days  at 
Interlachen  on  the  way. 

As  soon  as  the  bustle  produced  by  this  ar- 
rival had  subsided,  Rollo's  attention  was 
attracted  by  a  very  sweet  musical  sound  which 
seemed  to  be  produced  by  something  coming 
along  the  road. 

"What  can  that  be  T  wonder?"  said  he  to 
himself. 

Then  in  a  little  louder  tone,  but  without 
turning  round, — 

"Uncle  George,  here  is  some  music  coming. 
What  do  you  think  it  is?" 

Mr.  George  paused  a  moment  to  listen,  and 
then  went  on  with  his  writing. 

The  mystery  was  soon  solved ;  for,  in  a  few 
moments  after  Rollo  had  spoken,  he  saw  a 
large   flock  of    goats  coming  along.       These 


88  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

goats  all  had  bells  upon  their  necks, — or  at 
least  a  great  many  of  them  were  so  provided, 
— and  these  bells,  having  a  soft  and  sweet  tone, 
produced,  when  their  sounds  were  blended 
together,  an  enchanting  harmony.  The  goats 
walked  demurely  along,  driven  by  one  or  two 
goatherds  who  were  following  them,  and  soon 
disappeared  behind  the  trees  and  shrubbery. 
Very  soon  after  their  forms  had  disappeared 
from  view  the  music  of  their  bells  began  to 
grow  fainter  and  fainter  until  it  ceased  to  be 
heard. 

"It  was  a  flock  of  goats  going  by,"  said 
Rollo. 

Rollo  next  heard  voices ;  and,  turning  in  the 
direction  whence  the  sounds  proceeded,  he  saw 
a  party  of  young  men  coming  up  toward  the 
door  of  the  hotel  along  the  graveled  avenue. 
This  was  a  party  of  German  students  making 
the  tour  of  Switzerland  on  foot.  They  had 
knapsacks  on  their  backs,  and  stout  walking 
sticks  and  guide  books  in  their  hands.  They 
came  up  talking  and  laughing  together,  full 
of  hilarity  and  glee;  and  yet  some  of  them 
seemed  very  tired.  They  had  walked  six  miles 
that  morning,  and  were  now  going  to  stop  at 
this  hotel  for  breakfast.  Rollo  listened  to 
their  conversation ;  but,  as  it  was  in  the  Ger- 
man language,  he  could  not  understand  one 
word  that  they  were  saying. 

"Dear  me!"  said  he;  "I  wish  that  everybody 
would  talk  either  French  or  English." 

As  soon  as  the  students  had  passed  on  into 
the  inn  Rollo  heard  another  carriage  coming. 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  89 

He  looked  and  found  that  it  was  a  char  a  ba?ic. 
A  char  a  banc  is  a  small,  one-horse  carriage, 
which  looks  upon  the  outside  very  much  like 
what  is  called  a  carryall  in  America,  only  it  is 
much  narrower.  It  differs  very  much,  how- 
ever, from  a  carryall  within ;  for  it  has  only  a 
seat  for  two  persons,  and  that  is  placed  side- 
ways, with  the  end  to  the  horses.  You  ride  in 
it,  therefore,  sideways,  as  you  do  in  an  omni- 
bus, only  in  an  omnibus  there  are  two  seats, 
one  on  each  side,  and  the  door  is  at  the  end ; 
whereas  in  the  char  a  banc  there  is  a  seat  only 
on  one  side,  and  the  door  is  opposite  to  it  on 
the  other.  The  seat  is  large  and  comfortable, 
being  very  much  like  a  short  sofa.  Some  peo- 
ple, therefore,  describe  a  char  a  banc  as  a  sofa 
placed  endwise  on  wheels. 

The  char  a  banc  stopped  before  the  door  of 
the  hotel;  and  the  coachman,  getting  down 
from  his  seat  in  front,  opened  the  door.  A 
very  dignified-looking  gentleman  stepped  out; 
and,  after  standing  a  moment  on  the  piazza 
to  give  some  directions  about  his  portmanteau, 
he  went  into  the  office  of  the  hotel. 

Rollo,  looking  down  from  the  window  of  his 
uncle  George's  room,  could  see  all  these  things 
very  plainly ;  for  the  roof  which  protected  the 
piazza  from  the  rain  was  up  at  the  top  of  the 
hotel,  and  therefore  did  not  interfere  with  his 
view. 

After  having  made  the  above-described 
observations  from  the  window,  Rollo  began  to 
think  that  he  would  like  to  go  down  below  to 


90  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND, 

the  door,  where  he  thought  he  could  see  what 
was  going  on  to  better  advantage. 

"Uncle  George,"  said  he,  "when  are  you 
going  down  to  breakfast?" 

"In  about  half  an  hour, "  said  Mr.  George; 
"I  have  got  another  letter  to  write." 

"Then  I  believe  I  will  go  down  now,"  said 
Rollo,  "and  wait  there  till  you  come." 

"Very  well,"  said  Mr.  George;  "and  please 
order  breakfast,  and  then  it  will  be  all  ready 
when  I  get  my  letter  finished." 

"What  shall  I  order?"  asked  Rollo. 

"I  don't  know,"  said  Mr.  George.  "I  don't 
know  what  it  is  the  fashion  to  have  for  break- 
fast here.  Ask  them  what  they  have  got,  and 
then  choose  for  yourself  and  me." 

So  Rollo,  putting  on  his  cap,  went  down- 
stairs. 

He  stood  for  a  little  time  on  the  piazza,  look- 
ing at  the  strange  dresses  of  the  people  that 
were  sitting  or  standing  there  and  listening  to 
the  outlandish  sounds  of  the  foreign  languages 
which  they  were  speaking.  At  a  little  distance 
out  upon  the  gravel  walk,  near  the  shrubbery, 
were  a  party  of  guides  waiting  to  be  hired  for 
mountain  excursions.  Some  of  these  guides 
were  talking  with  travelers,  forming  plans,  or 
agreeing  upon  the  terms  on  which  they  were 
to  serve.  Rollo,  after  observing  these  groups 
a  little  time,  walked  along  the  piazza  toward  a 
place  where  he  saw  an  open  door  in  another 
large  building,  which,  being  connected  with  the 
piazza,  evidently  belonged  to  the  hotel.  In 
fact,  it  was  a  sort  of  wing.     As  there   were 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  91 

people  going  in  and  out  at  this  door,  Rollo 
thought  that  he  could  go  in,  too. 

He  accordingly  walked  along  in  that  direc- 
tion. Before  he  reached  the  door  he  came  to 
a  place  which,  though  open  to  the  air,  was 
covered  with  a  roof,  and  was  so  enclosed  by  the 
buildings  on  three  sides  as  to  make  quite  a 
pleasant  little  nook.  It  was  ornamented  by 
various  shrubs  and  flowers  which  grew  from 
tubs  and  large  pots  arranged  against  the  sides 
of  it.  There  were  several  tables  in  this  space, 
with  chairs  around  them,  and  one  or  two  par- 
ties of  young  men  were  taking  their  breakfast 
there. 

"This  will  be  a  good  place  for  uncle  George 
and  me  to  have  our  breakfast, ' '  said  Rollo  to 
himself,  "and  we  can  see  the  Jungfrau  all  the 
time  while  we  are  eating  it." 

Rollo  then  went  on  into  the  open  door.  He 
found  himself  ushered  into  a  very  large  and 
beautiful  drawing  room.  There  were  a  great 
many  sofas  arranged  around  the  sides  of  it,  on 
which  parties  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  were 
sitting  talking  together;  while  other  gentle- 
men, their  hats  in  their  hands,  were  standing 
before  them  or  walking  about  the  floor.  There 
was  no  carpet;  but  the  floor  was  formed  of 
dark  wood  highly  polished,  and  was  very  beau- 
tiful. There  was  a  fireplace  in  one  corner  of 
this  room ;  but  there  was  no  fire  in  it.  No  fire 
was  necessary ;  for  it  was  a  warm  and  pleasant 
morning. 

On  the  front  side  of  the  room  was  a 
row  of  windows  looking  out  toward  the  road. 


92  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

On  the  back  side  was  a  door  opening  to  another 
large  room,  where  Rollo  saw  a  table  spread  and 
several  people  sitting  at  it  eating  their  break- 
fast. 

"Ah,"  said  Rollo,  "there  is  the  dining  room! 
I  will  go  in  there  and  see  what  we  can  have  for 
breakfast."  So  he  walked  through  the  drawing 
room  and  entered  the  room  beyond.  He  found 
that  this  inner  room  was  quite  a  spacious 
apartment;  and  there  were  one  or  two  long 
tables  extending  the  whole  length  of  it. 

There  were  various  separate  parties  sitting 
at  these  tables  taking  breakfast.  Some  were 
just  beginning.  Some  had  just  ended.  Some 
were  waiting  for  their  breakfast  to  be  brought 
in.  Near  where  Rollo  was  standing  two  gen- 
tlemen were  seated  at  the  table,  with  a  map  of 
Switzerland  spread  before  them;  and,  instead 
of  being  occupied  with  breakfast,  they  were 
planning  some  excursion  for  the  day. 

Rollo  looked  out  a  vacant  place  at  the  table 
and  took  his  seat.  A  waiter  came  to  him  to 
know  what  he  would  have. 

"I  want  breakfast  for  two,"  said  Rollo,  "my 
uncle  and  myself.  What  have  you  got  for 
us?" 

The  waiter  repeated  a  long  list  of  very 
nice  things  that  he  could  give  Rollo  and  his 
uncle  for  breakfast.  From  among  these  Rollo 
chose  a  beefsteak,  some  hot  rolls  and  butter, 
some  honey,  and  some  coffee.  The  waiter 
went  out  to  prepare  them. 

In  about  ten  minutes  Mr.  George  came  down. 
He  took  his  seat  by  the   side  of   Rollo;  and 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  93 

very  soon  afterward  the  waiter  brought  in 
what  had  been  ordered.  Rollo  liked  the  break- 
fast very  much,  especially  the  honey. 

It  is   very    customary   to    have    honey  for 
breakfast  in  Switzerland. 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

LAUTERBBUNNEN. 

"Come,  uncle  George,"  said  Rollo,  "make 
haste.     We  are  all  ready." 

Rollo  was  sitting  in  a  char  a  banc  when  he 
said  this,  at  the  door  of  the  hotel.  He  and  his 
uncle  were  going  to  make  an  excursion  up  the 
valley  of  the  Lutschine  to  Lauterbrunnen, 
and  thence  to  ascend  the  Wengern  Alp,  in 
order  to  see  the  avalanches  of  the  Jungfrau ; 
and  Rollo  was  in  haste  to  set  out. 

"Come,  uncle  George,"  said  he,  "make 
haste." 

Mr.  George  was  coming  out  of  the  hotel 
slowly,  talking  with  the  landlord. 

"The  guide  will  take  you  to  Lauterbrun- 
nen," said  the  landlord,  "in  the  ohar  a  banc; 
and  then  he  will  send  the  char  a  banc  back 
down  the  valley  to  the  fork,  and  thence  up  to 
Grindelwald  to  wait  for  you  there.  You  will 
go  up  to  the  Wengern  Alp  from  Lauterbrun- 
nen; and  then,  after  staying  there  as  long  as 
you  please,  you  will  keep  on  and  come  down 
to  Grindelwald  on  the  other  side,  where  you 
will  find  the  carriage  ready  for  you.  But  it 
seems  to  me  that  you  had  better  take  another 
horse. • ' 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  95 

"No,"  said  Mr.  George.  "One  will  do  very 
well." 

Mr.  George  had  a  carpet  bag  in  his  hand. 
It  contained  nightdresses,  to  be  used  in  case  he 
and  Rollo  should  conclude  to  spend  the  night 
on  the  mountain.  He  put  the  carpet  bagin  to 
the  carriage,  and  then  got  in  himself.  The 
landlord  shut  the  door,  and  the  coachman 
drove  away.  Thus  they  set  out  on  their  excur- 
sion. 

This  excursion  to  the  Wengern  Alp  was  only 
one  of  the  many  similar  expeditions  which 
Rollo  and  Mr.  George  made  together  while 
they  were  in  Switzerland.  As,  however,  it  is 
manifestly  impossible  to  describe  the  whole 
of  Switzerland  in  so  small  a  volume  as  this,  I 
shall  give  a  narrative  of  the  ascent  of  the 
Wengern  Alp  as  a  sort  of  specimen  of  these 
excursions.  I  think  it  better  that  I  should 
give  a  minute  and  particular  account  of  one 
than  a  more  vague  and  general,  and  so  less 
satisfactory,  account  of  several  of  them. 

Rollo  had  taken  the  precaution  to  have  the 
curtains  of  the  char  a  banc  rolled  up,  so  that 
he  and  Mr.  George  could  see  out  freely  on  all 
sides  of  them  as  they  rode  along. 

The  view  which  was  first  presented  to  their 
observation  was  that  of  the  lawns  and  gar- 
dens in  the  midst  of  which  the  hotels  were 
situated.  These  grounds  were  connected 
together  by  walks — some  straight,  others  wind- 
ing— which  passed  through  bowers  and  gate- 
ways from  one  enclosure  to  the  other.  In 
these    walks   various  parties   were    strolling; 


96  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

some  were  gathering  flowers,  others  were  gaz- 
ing at  the  mountains  around,  and  others  still 
were  moving  quietly  along,  going  from  one 
hotel  to  another  for  the  purpose  of  taking  a 
pleasant  morning  walk  or  to  make  visits  to 
their  friends.  The  whole  scene  was  a  bright 
and  very  animated  one;  but  Rollo  had  not 
time  to  observe  it  long;  for  the  charabanc, 
after  moving  by  a  graceful  sweep  around  a 
copse  of  shrubbery,  passed  out  through  a  great 
gateway  in  the  road,  and  the  hotels  and  all 
that  pertained  to  them  were  soon  hidden  from 
view  by  the  great  trees  which  grew  along  the 
ioadside  before  them. 

The  coachman,  or  rather  the  guide, — for  the 
man  who  was  driving  the  char  a  banc  was  the 
one  who  was  to  act  as  guide  up  the  mountain 
when  they  reached  Lauterbrunnen, — turned 
soon  into  a  road  which  led  off  toward  the 
gap,  or  opening,  in  the  nearer  moun- 
tains which  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  had  seen 
from  the  windows  of  the  hotel.  The  road  was 
very  smooth  and  level,  and  the  two  travelers, 
as  they  rode  along,  had  a  fine  view  of  the 
fields,  the  hamlets,  and  the  scattered  cottages 
which  bordered  the  road  on  the  side  to  which 
their  faces  were  turned. 

"This  char  a  banc,"  said  Rollo,  "is  an  excel- 
lent carriage  for  seeing  the  prospect  on  one 
side  of  the  road." 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George;  "but  there  might 
be  the  most  astonishing  spectacle  in  Switzer- 
land on  the  other  side  without   our   knowing 


HOLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  9? 

anything  about  it  unless  we  turned  round  ex- 
pressly to  see. ' ' 

So  saying,  Mr.  George  turned  in  his  seat  and 
looked  at  that  side  of  the  road  which  had  been 
behind  them.  There  was  a  field  there,  and  a 
young  girl  about  seventeen  years  old — with  a 
very  broad-brimmed  straw  hat  upon  her  head, 
and  wearing  a  very  picturesque  costume  in 
other  respects  —  was  seen  digging  up  the 
ground  with  a  hoe. 

The  blade  of  the  hoe  was  long,  and  it  seemed 
very  heavy.  The  girl  was  digging  up  the 
ground  by  standing  upon  the  part  which  she 
had  already  dug  and  striking  the  hoe  down 
into  the  hard  ground  a  few  inches  back  from 
where  she  had  struck  before. 

"Do  the  women  work  in  the  fields  every- 
where in  Switzerland,  Henry?"  said  Mr. 
George. 

The  guide's  name  was  Henry.  He  could 
not  speak  English,  but  he  spoke  French  and 
German.  Mr.  George  addressed  him  in  French. 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  Henry;  "in  every  part  of 
Switzerland  where  I  have  been." 

"In  America  the  women  never  work  in  the 
fields,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"Never?"  asked  Henry,  surprised. 

"No,"  said  Mr.  George;  "at  least,  I  never 
saw  any." 

"What  do  they  do,  then,"  asked  Henry,  "to 
spend  their  time?" 

Mr.  George  laughed.  He  told  Rollo,  in 
English,  that  he  did  not  think  he  had  any  sat- 
isfactory answer  at  hand  in  respect  to  the  man- 

1    Switzerland 


58  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

ner  in  which  the  American  ladies  spent  their 
time. 

"I  pity  that  poor  girl,"  said  Rollo,  "hoeing 
all  day  on  such  hard  ground.  I  think  the  men 
ought  to  do  such  work  as  that. ' ' 

"The  men  have  harder  work  to  do, "  said 
Mr.  George;  "climbing  the  mountains  to  hunt 
chamois,  or  driving  the  sheep  and  cows  up  to 
the  upper  pasturages  in  places  where  it  would 
be  very  difficult  for  women  to  go." 

"We  must  turn  round  every  now  and  then," 
said  Rollo,  "and  see  what  is  behind  us,  or  we 
may  lose  the  sight  of  something  very  extraor- 
dinary." 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George;  "I  heard  of  a 
party  of  English  ladies  who  once  went  out  in 
a  char  a  banc  to  see  a  lake.  It  happened  that 
when  they  came  to  the  lake  the  road  led  along 
the  shore  in  such  a  manner  that  the  party,  as 
they  sat  in  the  carriage,  had  their  backs  to 
the  water.  So  they  rode  along,  looking  at 
the  scenery  on  the  land  side  and  wondering 
why  they  did  not  come  to  the  lake  In  this 
manner  they  continued  until  they  had  gone 
entirely  around  the  lake;  and  then  the  coach- 
man drove  them  home.  When  they  arrived  at 
the  hotel  they  were  astonished  to  find  that  they 
had  got  home  again ;  and  they  called  out  to 
the  coachman  to  ask  where  the  lake  was  that 
they  had  driven  out  to  see.  He  told  them  that 
he  had  driven  them  all  round  it!" 

Rollo  laughed  heartily  at  this  story,  and 
Henry  would  probably  have  laughed  too  if 
he   had   understood   it;    but,    as    Mr.    George 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  99 

related  it  in  English,  Henry  did  not  compre- 
hend one  word  of  the  narration  from  beginning 
to  end. 

In  the  meantime  the  horse  trotted  rapidly 
onward  along  the  valley,  which  seemed  to 
grow  narrower  and  narrower  as  they  pro- 
ceeded; and  the  impending  precipices  which 
here  and  there  overhung  the  road  became 
more  and  more  terrific.  The  Lutschine,  a  rapid 
and  turbid  stream,  swept  swiftly  along — some- 
times in  full  view  and  sometimes  concealed. 
Now  and  then  there  was  a  bridge,  or  a  mill,  or 
some  little  hamlet  of  Swiss  cottages  to  diver- 
sify the  scene.  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  observed 
everything  with  great  attention  and  interest. 
They  met  frequent  parties  of  travelers  return- 
ing from  Grindelwald  to  Lauterbrunnen — 
some  on  foot,  some  on  horseback,  and  others 
in  carriages  which  were  more  or  less  spacious 
and  elegant,  according  to  the  rank  or  wealth 
of  the  travelers  who  were  journeying  in  them. 

At  length  they  arrived  at  the  fork  of  the 
valley.  Here  they  gazed  with  astonishment 
and  awe  at  the  stupendous  precipice  which 
reared  its  colossal  front  before  them  and  which 
seemed  effectually  to  stop  their  way. 

On  drawing  near  to  it,  however,  it  appeared 
that  the  valley  divided  into  two  branches  at 
this  point,  as  has  already  been  explained.  The 
road  divided,  too.  The  branch  which  led  to 
the  right  was  the  road  to  Lauterbrunnen.  The 
one  to  the  left  Rollo  supposed  led  to  Grindel- 
wald. To  make  it  sure,  he  pointed  to  the  left- 
hand  road  and  said  to  Henry, — 


100  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

"To  Grindelwald?" 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  Henry,  "to  Grindelwald. 

The  scenery  now  became  more  wild  than 
ever.  The  valley  was  narrow,  and  on  each 
side  of  it  were  to  be  seen  lofty  precipices  and 
vast  slopes  of  mountain  land — some  smooth 
and  green,  covered,  though  very  steep,  with 
flocks  and  herds,  and  others  feathered  with 
dark  evergreen  forests,  or  covered  with  ragged 
rocks,  or  pierced  with  frightful  chasms.  Here 
and  there  a  zig-zag  path  was  seen  leading  from 
hamlet  to  hamlet  or  from  peak  to  peak  up  the 
mountain,  with  peasants  ascending  or  descend- 
ing by  them  and  bearing  burdens  of  every  form 
and  variety  on  their  backs.  In  one  case,  Rollo 
saw  a  woman  bringing  a  load  of  hay  on  her 
back  down  the  mountain  side. 

The  valley,  bordered  thus  as  it  was  with 
such  wild  and  precipitous  mountain  sides, 
might  have  had  a  gloomy,  or  at  least  a  very 
sombre,  expression,  had  it  not  been  cheered 
and  animated  by  the  waterfalls  that  came  foam- 
ing down  here  and  there  from  the  precipices 
above,  and  which  seemed  so  bright  and  spark- 
ling that  they  greatly  enlivened  the  scene. 
These  waterfalls  were  of  a  great  variety  of 
forms.  In  some  cases  a  thin  thread  of  water, 
like  the  jet  from  a  fire  engine,  came  slowly 
over  the  brink  of  a  precipice  a  thousand  feet  in 
the  air,  and,  gliding  smoothly  down  for  a  few 
hundred  feet,  was  then  lost  entirely  in  vapor 
or  spay.  In  other  cases,  in  the  depth  of  some 
deep  ravine  far  up  the  mountain,  might  be  seen 
a  line  of  foam  meandering  for  a  short  distance 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  101 

among  the  rocks  and  then  disappearing.  Rollo 
pointed  to  one  of  these,  and  then  said  to  Mr. 
George, — ' 'Uncle,  look  there !  There  is  a  short 
waterfall  half  way  up  the  mountain ;  but  I  can 
not  see  where  the  water  comes  from  or  where 
it  goes  to. " 

"No,"  said  Mr.  George.  "It  comes,  undoubt- 
edly, from  over  the  precipice  above,  and  it 
flows  entirely  down  into  the  valley;  but  it  only 
comes  out  to  view  for  that  short  distance." 

"Why  can't  we  see  it  all  the  way?"  asked 
Rollo. 

"I  suppose,"  said  Mr.  George,  "it  may  flow 
for  the  rest  of  the  way  in  the  bottom  of  some 
deep  chasms,  or  it  may  possibly  be  that  it  comes 
suddenly  out  of  the  ground  at  the  place  where 
we  see  it." 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo.  "I  found  a  great  stream 
coming  suddenly  out  of  the  ground  at  Inter- 
lachen." 

"Where?"  asked  Mr.  George. 

"Right  across  the  river,"  said  Rollo.  "I 
went  over  there  this  morning." 

"How  did  you  get  over  there?"  said  Mr. 
George. 

"I  went  over  on  a  bridge,"  said  Rollo.  "I 
took  a  little  walk  up  the  road,  and  pretty  soon 
I  came  to  a  bridge  which  led  across  the  river. 
I  went  over,  and  then  walked  along  the  bank 
on  the  other  side.  There  was  only  a  narrow 
space  between  the  river  and  the  precipice. 
The  ground  sloped  down  from  the  foot  of  the 
precipice  to  the  water.  I  found  several  very 
large   springs    breaking  out  in    this   ground. 


102  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

One  of  them  was  very  large.  The  water  that 
ran  from  it  made  a  great  stream,  large  enough 
for  a  mill.  It  came  up  right  out  of  the  ground 
from  a  great  hole  all  full  of  stones.  The  water 
came  up  from  among  the  stones. ' ' 

"And  where  did  it  goto?"  asked  Mr.  George. 

"O,  it  ran  directly  down  into  the  river.  The 
place  was  rather  steep  where  it  ran  down,  so 
that  it  made  a  cascade  all  the  way. ' ' 

"I  should  like  to  have  seen  it,"  said  Mr. 
George. 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo;  "it  was  very  curious 
indeed  to  see  a  little  river  come  up  suddenly 
out  of  the  ground  from  a  great  hole  full  of 
stones." 

Talking  in  this  manner  about  what  they  had 
seen,  our  travelers  went  on  till  they  came  to 
Lauterbrunnen.  They  found  a  small  village 
here,  in  the  midst  of  which  was  a  large  and 
comfortable  inn.  There  were  a  number  of 
guides  and  several  carriages  in  the  yards  of 
this  inn,  and  many  parties  of  travelers  coming 
and  going.  The  principal  attraction  of  the 
valley,  however,  at  this  part  of  it,  is  an 
immense  waterfall,  called  the  Fall  of  the  Stau- 
bach,  which  was  to  be  seen  a  little  beyond  the 
village,  up  the  valley.  This  is  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  waterfalls  in  all  Switzerland. 
A  large  stream  comes  over  the  brink  of  a  prec- 
ipice nearly  a  thousand  feet  high,  and  descends 
in  one  smooth  and  continuous  column  for  some 
hundreds  of  feet,  when  it  gradually  breaks,  and 
finally  comes  down  upon  the  rocks  below  a 
vast  mass  of  foam  and  spray. 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  103 

Rollo  and  Mr.  George  could  see  this  water- 
fall and  a  great  many  other  smaller  ones  which 
came  streaming  down  over  the  faces  of  the 
precipices,  along  the  sides  of  the  valley,  as  they 
came  up  in  the  char  a  banc,  before  they  reached 
the  inn. 

"I  don't  see  how  such  a  large  river  gets  to 
the  top  of  such  a  high  hill, ' '  said  Rollo. 

That  this  question  should  have  arisen  in 
Rollo's  mind  is  not  surprising ;  for  the  top  of 
the  precipice  where  the  Staubach  came  over 
seemed,  in  fact,  the  summit  of  a  sharp  ride  to 
any  one  looking  up  to  it  from  the  valley  below  ; 
and  Rollo  did  not  imagine  that  there  was  any 
land  above.  The  apparent  wonder  was,  how- 
ever, afterward  explained,  when  our  travelers 
began  to  ascend  the  mountain  on  the  other 
side  of  the  valley  that  afternoon  to  go  up  to  the 
Wengern  Alp. 

The  guide  drove  the  char  a  banc  to  the  door 
of  the  inn,  and  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  got  out. 
They  went  into  the  inn  and  ordered  dinner. 

"We  are  going  to  see  the  Staubach,"  said 
Mr.  George  to  the  waiter,  "and  we  will  be  back 
in  half  an  hour.  " 

"Very  well,"  said  the  waiter;  "your  dinner 
shall  be  ready." 

So  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  came  out  of  the  inn 
again  in  order  to  go  and  see  the  waterfall. 

They  were  beset  at  the  door  by  a  number  of 
young  men  and  boys,  and  also  by  several  little 
girls,  some  of  whom  wanted  to  sell  them  min- 
erals  or    flowers    which    they    had   gathered 


104  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

among   the   rocks   around   the  waterfall;  and 
others  wished  to  guide  them  to  the  place. 

"To  the  Staubach?  To  the  Staubach?"  said 
they.     "Want  a  guide?     Want  a  guide?" 

They  said  this  in  the  German  language. 
Mr.  George  understood  enough  of  German  to 
know  what  they  meant;  but  he  could  not  reply 
in  that  language.      So  he  said,  in  French, — 

"No;  we  do  not  wish  any  guide.  We  can 
find  the  way  to  the  Staubach  ourselves.  There 
it  is,  right  before  our  eyes." 

Mr.  George,  while  he  was  saying  this,  was 
taking  out  some  small  change  from  his  pockets 
to  give  to  the  children.  He  gave  a  small  coin 
apiece  to  them  all. 

Seeing  this,  the  boys  who  had  wished  to 
guide  him  to  the  Staubach  became  more  clam- 
orous than  ever. 

"To  the  Staubach?"  said  they.  "To  the 
Staubach?     Want  a  guide?     Want  a  guide?" 

Mr.  George  paid  no  further  attention  to 
them;  but,  saying  "Come,   Rollo,"  walked  on. 

The  would-be  guides  followed  him  a  short 
distance,  still  offering  their  services;  but,  find- 
ing soon  that  Mr.  George  would  not  have  any- 
thing more  to  say  to  them,  they  gradually 
dropped  off  and  went  back  to  the  inn  to  try 
their  fortune  with  the  next  arrival. 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  walked  on  along  a  nar- 
row road,  which  was  bordered  by  queer,  pic- 
turesque-looking huts  and  cottages  on  either 
hand,  with  gardens  by  the  sides  of  them,  in 
which  women  and  girls  were  hoeing  or  weed- 
ing.      They  met  two  or  three  parties  of  ladies 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  105 

and  gentlemen  returning  from  the  Staubach ; 
and  presently  they  came  to  a  place  where, 
close  to  the  side  of  the  road,  was  a  small  shop, 
before  which  a  party  of  ladies  and  gentlemen 
had  stopped,  apparently  to  look  at  something 
curious. 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  went  to  the  place  and 
found  that  it  was  a  shop  for  the  sale  of  the 
carved  toys  and  images  such  as  are  made  in 
many  parts  of  Switzerland  to  be  sold  to  trav- 
elers for  souvenirs  of  their  tour  through  the 
country.  There  were  shelves  put  up  on  the 
outside  of  the  shop,  each  side  of  the  door,  and 
these  shelves  were  covered  with  all  sorts  of 
curious  objects  carved  in  white  or  yellow  fir, 
or  pine.  There  were  images  of  Swiss  peasants 
with  all  sorts  of  burdens  on  their  backs,  and 
models  of  Swiss  cottages,  and  needle  boxes, 
and  pin  cases,  and  match  boxes,  and  nut  crack- 
ers, and  groups  of  hunters  on  the  rocks,  or  of 
goats  or  chamois  climbing,  and  rulers  orna- 
mented with  cameo-like  carvings  of  wreaths 
and  flowers,  and  with  the  word  "Staubach" 
cut  in  ornamental  letters. 

Rollo  was  greatly  interested  in  this  store  of 
curiosities,  so  much  so,  in  fact,  that  for  the 
moment  all  thoughts  of  the  Staubach  were 
driven  from  his  mind. 

"Let  us  buy  some  of  these  things,  uncle 
George,"  said  he. 

"And  carry  them  over  the  Wengern  Alp?" 
said  Mr.  George. 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo.  "They  won't  be  very 
heavy.     We  can  put  them  in  the  carpet  bag." 


106  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  George,  "you  may  buy  one 
or  two  specimens  if  you  wish,  but  not  many; 
for  the  guide  has  got  the  carpet  bag  to  carry, 
and  we  must  not  make  it  very  heavy. " 

"Or  we  can  send  them  in  the  carriage  around 
to  Grindelwald,"  said  Rollo,  "and  not  have  to 
carry  them  at  all." 

"So  we  can,"  said  Mr.  George. 

Rollo  accordingly  bought  two  Swiss  cottages, 
very  small  ones,  and  a  nut  cracker.  The  nut 
cracker  was  shaped  like  a  man's  fist,  with  a 
hole  in  the  middle  of  it  to  put  the  nut  in. 
Then  there  was  a  handle,  the  end  of  which, 
when  the  handle  was  turned,  was  forced  into 
the  hollow  of  the  fist  by  means  of  a  screw  cut 
in  the  wood,  and  this  would  crack  the  nut. 

While  Rollo  was  paying  for  his  toys  he  felt 
a  small  hand  taking  hold  of  his  own,  and  heard 
a  voice  say,  in  English, — 

"How  do  you  do?" 

The  English  "How  do  you  do?"  is  a  strange 
sound  to  be  heard  in  these  remote  Swiss  val- 
leys. 

Rollo  turned  round  and  saw  a  boy  look  up 
to  him  with  a  smile,  saying  again  at  the  same 
time, — 

"How  do  you  do?" 

In  a  moment  Rollo  recognized  the  boy  whom 
he  had  seen  at  Basle  in  the  court  yard  of  the 
diligence  office  while  he  had  been  waiting 
there  for  the  horses  to  be  harnessed.  His  sister 
Lottie  was  standing  near;  and  she,  as  well  as 
her  brother,  appeared  to  be  much  pleased  at 
seeing  Rollo  again.     Rollo  had  a  few  minutes' 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  107 

conversation  with  his  young  friends,  and  then 
they  separated,  as  Rollo  went  on  with  his  uncle 
to  see  the  waterfall ;  while  they,  having  already 
been  with  their  father  and  mother  to  see  it, 
went  back  to  the  inn. 

Mr.  George  had  recommended  to  Rollo  not 
to  buy  too  many  specimens  of  the  carving,  not 
only  on  account  of  the  difficulty  of  transporting 
them,  but  also  because  he  thought  that  they 
would  probably  find  a  great  man}^  other  oppor- 
tunities to  purchase  such  things  before  they 
had  finished  their  rambles  in  Switzerland.  He 
was  quite  right  in  this  supposition.  In  fact, 
Rollo  passed  three  more  stands  for  selling  such 
things  on  th^  way  to  the  Staubach. 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  continued  their  walk 
along  the  road,  looking  up  constantly  at  the 
colossal  column  of  water  before  them,  which 
seemed  to  grow  larger  and  higher  the  nearer 
they  drew  to  it.  At  length  they  reached  the 
part  of  the  road  which  was  directly  opposite  to 
it.  Here  there  was  a  path  which  turned  off 
from  the  road  and  led  up  through  the  pasture 
toward  the  foot  of  the  fall.  The  entrance  to 
this  path  was  beset  by  peddlers  who  had  little 
boxes  full  of  crystals  and  other  shining  miner- 
als which  they  wished  to  sell  to  visitors  for 
souvenirs  of  the  place. 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  turned  into  this  path 
and  attempted  to  advance  toward  the  foot  of 
the  fall;  but  they  soon  found  themselves 
stopped  by  the  spray.  In  fact,  the  whole 
region  all  around  the  foot  of  the  fall,  for  a 
great  distance,  was  so  full  of  mist  and  driving 


108  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

spray  that  going  into  it  was  like  going  into  a 
rain  storm.  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  soon  found 
that  they  were  getting  thoroughly  wet  and 
that  it  would  not  do  to  go  any  farther. 

"And  so,"  said  Rollo,  in  a  disappointed 
tone,  "though  we  have  taken  the  pains  to  come 
all  this  way  to  see  the  waterfall,  we  can't  get 
near  enough  to  see  it  after  all." 

Mr.  George  laughed. 

"I  wish  we  had  brought  an  umbrella,"  said 
Rollo. 

"An  umbrella  would  not  have  done  much 
good,"  replied  Mr.  George.  "The  wind 
whirls  about  so  much  that  it  would  drive  the 
spray  upon  us  whichever  way  we  should  turn 
the  umbrella." 

"The  path  goes  on  a  great  deal  nearer," 
said  Rollo.  "Somebody  must  go  there,  at  any 
rate,  without  minding  the  spray." 

"Perhaps,"  said  Mr.  George,  "when  the 
wind  is  in  some  other  quarter,  it  may  blow  the 
spray  away,  so  that  people  can  go  nearer  the 
foot  of  the  fall  without  getting  wet.  At  any 
rate,  it  is  plain  that  we  cannot  go  any  nearer 
now. ' ' 

Saying  these  words,  Mr.  George  led  the  way 
back  toward  the  road,  and  Rollo  followed 
him. 

After  retreating  far  enough  to  get  again  into 
a  dry  atmosphere,  they  stopped  and  looked  up- 
ward at  the  fall.  It  seemed  an  immense  catar- 
act coming  down  out  of  the  sky.  After  gazing 
at  the  stupendous  spectacle  till  their  wonder 
and  admiration  were  in  some  measure  satisfied, 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  109 

they  returned  to  the  inn,  where  they  found  an 
excellent  dinner  all  ready  for  them.  While 
they  were  thus  employed  in  eating  their  din- 
ner, Henry  was  engaged  in  eating  his,  with  at 
least  as  good  an  appetite,  in  company  with 
the  other  guides,  in  the  servants'  hall. 


HO  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    WENGERN    ALP. 

It  was  about  twelve  o'clock  when  Rollo  and 
Mr.  George,  having  finished  their  dinner,  came 
out  into  the  yard  of  the  inn  for  the  purpose  of 
setting  out  for  the  ascent  of  the  mountain. 

"Well,  Rollo,"  said  Mr.  George,  "now  for  a 
scramble." 

Thus  far  the  road  which  the  young  gentle- 
men had  traveled  since  leaving  Interlachen  had 
been  quite  level  and  smooth,  its  course  having 
been  along  the  bottom  of  the  valley,  which 
was  itself  quite  level,  though  shut  in  on  both 
sides  by  precipitious  mountains.  Now  they 
were  to  leave  the  valley  and  ascend  one  of 
these  mountain  sides  by  means  of  certain  zig- 
zag paths  which  had  been  made  with  great 
labor  upon  them,  to  enable  the  peasants  to  as- 
cend and  descend  in  going  to  and  from  their 
hamlets  and  pasturages. 

The  paths,  though  very  steep  and  very  tor- 
tuous, are  smooth  enough  for  horses  to  go  up, 
though  the  peasants  themselves  very  seldom 
use  horses.  A  horse  would  eat  as  much  grass, 
perhaps,  as  two  cows.  They  prefer,  therefore, 
to  have  the  cows,  and  do  without  the  horses. 
And  so  everything  which  they  wish  to  trans- 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  Ill 

port  up  and  down  the  mountain  they  carry  on 
their  backs. 

There  were  various  other  guides  in  the  yard 
of  the  inn  besides  Henry;  some  were  prepar- 
ing apparently  for  the  ascent  of  the  mountain 
with  other  parties;  others  were  bringing  up 
carriages  for  people  who  were  going  to  return 
to  Interlachen.  Henry,  when  he  saw  Mr. 
George  and  Rollo  coming  out,  asked  them  if 
they  were  ready. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George.  "Bring  the  horse. 
You  shall  ride  first,  Rollo.  " 

Mr.  George  was  to  have  but  one  horse  for 
himself  and  Rollo,  and  they  were  to  ride  it  by 
turns.  He  thought  that  both  he  himself  and 
Rollo  would  be  able  to  walk  half  way  up  the 
mountain,  and,  by  having,  one  horse  between 
them,  each  could  ride  half  the  way. 

Besides,  it  is  less  fatiguing,  when  you  have 
a  long  and  steep  ascent  to  make,  to  walk  some 
portion  of  the  way  rather  than  to  be  on  horse- 
back all  the  time. 

There  was  another  consideration  which  in- 
fluenced Mr.  George.  Every  additional  horse 
which  should  be  required  for  the  excursion 
would  cost  about  two  dollars  a  day,  including 
the  guide  to  take  care  of  him;  and,  as  Mr. 
George  expected  to  spend  at  least  two  days  on 
the  excursion,  it  would  cost  four  dollars  more 
to  take  two  horses  than  to  take  only  one. 

"And  I  think,"  said  Mr.  George  to  Rollo, 
after  having  made  this  calculation,  "we  had 
better  save  that  money,  and  have  it  to  buy 


112  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

beautiful  colored  engravings  of  Swiss  scenery 
with  when  we  get  to  Geneva. " 

"I  think  so,  too,"  said  Rollo. 

So  it  was  concluded  to  take  but  one  horse 
with  them,  on  the  understanding  that, each  of 
the  travelers  was  to  walk  half  the  way. 

Rollo  accordingly,  when  the  horse  was 
brought  to  the  door,  climbed  up  upon  his  back 
with  the  guide's  assistance,  and,  after  adjust- 
ing his  feet  to  the  stirrup,  prepared  to  set  out 
on  the  ascent.  His  heart  was  bounding  with 
excitement  and  delight. 

When  all  was  ready  the  party  moved  on, 
Rollo  on  the  horse  and  Mr.  George  and  Henry 
walking  along  by  his  side.  They  proceeded  a 
short  distance  along  the  road,  and  then  turned 
into  a  path  which  led  toward  the  side  of  the 
valley  opposite  to  the  Staubach.  They  soon 
reached  the  foot  of  the  slope,  and  then  they 
began  to  ascend.  The  path  grew  more  and 
more  steep  as  they  proceeded,  until  at  length 
it  became  very  precipitious;  and  in  some 
places  the  horse  was  obliged  to  scramble  up, 
as  it  were,  as  if  he  were  going  upstairs.  Rollo 
clung  to  his  seat  manfully  in  all  these  places; 
and  he  would  have  been  sometimes  afraid  were 
it  not  that,  in  every  case  where  there  could  be 
even  any  apparent  danger,  Henry  would  come 
to  his  side  and  keep  by  him,  ready  to  render 
assistance  at  a  moment's  notice  whenever  any 
should  be  needed.  In  this  way  the  party 
moved  slowly  on  up  the  face  of  the  mountain, 
making  many  short  turns  and  windings  among 
the  rocks  and  going  back  and  forth  in  zig-zags 


THE  MATTERHORN 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  113 

on  the  green  declivities.  Sometimes  for  a  few 
minutes  they  would  be  lost  in  a  grove  of  firs  or 
pines;  then  they  would  come  out  upon  some 
rounded  promontory  of  grassland  or  projecting 
peak  of  rocks;  and  a  few  minutes  afterward 
they  would  move  along  smoothly  for  a  time 
upon  a  level,  with  a  steep  acclivity,  rough  with 
rocks  and  precipices  on  one  side,  and  an 
abrupt  descent  on  the  other,  down  which  a 
stone  would  have  rolled  a  thousand  feet  into 
the  valley  below. 

Of  course,  the  view  of  the  valley  became 
more  commanding  and  more  striking  the 
higher  they  ascended.  Rollo  wished  at  every 
turn  to  stop  and  look  at  it.  He  did  stop  some- 
times, the  guide  saying  that  it  was  necessary 
to  do  so  in  order  to  let  the  horse  get  his  breath 
a  little;  for  the  toil  for  such  an  animal  of  get- 
ting up  so  steep  an  ascent  was  very  severe. 
Rollo  would  have  stopped  oftener;  but  he  did 
not  like  to  be  left  behind  by  his  uncle  George, 
who,  being  active  and  agile,  mounted  very 
rapidly.  Mr.  George  would  often  shorten  his 
road  very  much  by  climbing  directly  up  the 
rocks  from  one  turn  of  the  road  to  the  other; 
while  the  horse,  with  Rollo  on  his  back,  was 
compelled  to  go  round  by  the  zig-zag. 

At  last,  after  they  had  been  ascending  for 
about  half  an  hour,  Air.  George  stopped,  at  a 
place  where  there  was  a  smooth  stone  for  a 
seat  by  the  side  of  the  path,  to  wait  for  Rollo 
to  come  up;  and,  when  Rollo  came,  Mr. 
George  took  him  off  the  horse  to  let  him  rest 
a  little.     The  view  of  the  valley  from  this  point 

8    Switzerland 


114  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

was  very  grand  and  imposing.  Rollo  could 
look  down  into  it  as  you  could  look  into  the 
bed  of  a  brook  in  the  country,  standing  upon 
the  top  of  the  bank  on  one  side.  The  village, 
ths  inn,  the  little  cottages  along  the  roadside, 
the  river,  the  bridges,  and  a  thousand  other 
objects,  all  of  lilliputian  size,  were  to  be  seen 
below;  while  on  the  farther  side  the  streaming 
Staubach  was  in  full  view,  pouring  over  the 
brink  of  the  precipice  and  falling  in  a  dense 
mass  of  spray  on  the  rocks  at  the  foot  of 
them. 

Rollo  could  understand  now,  too,  where  the 
fall  of  the  Staubach  came  from;  for  above  the 
brink  of  the  precipice,  where  the  water  came 
over,  there  was  now  to  be  seen  a  vast  expanse 
of  mountain  country,  rising  steep,  but  not 
precipitously,  far  above  the  summit  of  the 
precipice,  and,  of  course,  receding  as  it  as- 
cended, so  as  not  to  be  seen  from  the  valley 
below.  From  the  elevation,  however,  to  which 
Rollo  had  now  attained,  the  whole  of  this  vast 
region  was  in  view.  It  was  covered  with  for- 
ests, pasturages,  chalets,  and  scattered  ham- 
lets; and  in  the  valleys,  long,  silvery  lines  of 
water  were  to  be  seen  glittering  in  the  sun  and 
twisting  and  twining  down  in  foaming  cascades 
to  the  brink  of  the  precipice,  where,  plunging 
over,  they  formed  the  cataracts  which  had  been 
seen  in  the  valley  below.  The  Staubach  was 
the  largest  of  these  falls;  and  the  stream  which 
produced  it  could  now  be  traced  for  many  miles 
as  it  came  dancing  along  in  its  shining  path 
down  among  the  ravines  of  the  mountains. 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  H5 

"I  see  now  what  makes  the  fall  of  the  Stau- 
bach, "  said  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George. 

"I  should  like  to  be  on  the  brink  of  the 
precipice  where  it  falls  over,"  said  Rollo,  "and 
look  down. " 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George;  "so  should  I.  I 
don't  think  that  we  could  get  near  enough 
actually  to  look  down,  but  we  could  get  near 
enough  to  see  the  water  where  it  begins  to  take 
the  plunge. ' ' 

After  resting  a  suitable  time  at  this  place 
and  greatly  admiring  and  enjoying  the  view, 
our  party  set  out  again.  Rollo  proposed  that 
his  uncle  should  ride  now  a  little  way  and  let 
him  walk;  but  Mr.  George  preferred  that  Rollo 
should  mount  again.  There  was  still  nearly 
another  hour's  hard  climbing  to  do  and  a  long 
and  pretty  difficult  walk  of  several  miles  be- 
yond it,  and  Mr.  George  was  very  desirous  of 
saving  Rollo's  strength.  It  might  perhaps  be 
supposed,  from  the  blunt  manner  in  which  Mr. 
George  often  threw  the  responsibility  upon 
Rollo  when  he  was  placed  in  difficult  emergen- 
cies and  left  him  to  act  for  himself  that  he  did 
not  think  or  came  much  for  his  nephew's  com- 
fort or  happiness.  But  this  was  by  no  means 
the  case.  Mr.  George  was  very  fond  of  Rollo, 
indeed.  If  he  had  not  been  fond  of  him  he 
would  not  have  wished  to  have  him  for  his 
companion  on  his  tour.  He  was  very  careful, 
too,  never  to  expose  Rollo  to  any  real  hardship 
or  suffering;  and  his  apparently  blunt  manner, 
in  throwing  responsibilities  upon  the  boy,  only 


116  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

amused  him  by  making  it  appear  that  his  uncle 
George  consideried  him  almost  a  man. 

Mr.  George,  knowing  that  the  first  part  of 
the  way  from  Lauterbrunnen  to  the  Wengern 
Alp  was  by  far  the  most  steep  and  difficult, 
had  accordingly  arranged  it  in  his  own  mind 
that  Rollo  should  ride  until  this  steep  part  had 
been  surmounted. 

"You  may  mount  again  now,  Rollo,"  said 
he.  "I  will  walk  a  little  longer  and  take  my 
turn  in  riding  a  little  farther  on." 

So  Rollo  mounted;  and  there  was  now  an- 
other hour  of  steep  climbing.  The  zig-zags 
were  sometimes  sharp  and  short  and  at  others 
long  and  winding;  but  the  way  was  always 
picturesque  and  the  views  became  more  and 
more  grand  and  imposing  the  higher  the  party 
ascended.  At  one  time,  when  Rollo  had 
stopped  a  moment  to  let  his  horse  breathe,  he 
saw  at  a  turn  of  the  path  a  few  zig-zags  below 
him  a  little  girl  coming  up,  with  a  basket  on 
her  back. 

Rollo  pointed  to  her  and  asked  the  guide,  in 
French,  who  that  girl  was. 

Henry  said  he  did  not  know. 

Henry,  foolishly  enough,  supposed  that 
Rollo  meant  to  ask  what  the  girl's  name  was; 
and  so  he  said  he  did  not  know.  But  this  was 
not  what  Rollo  meant  at  all.  He  had  no  par- 
ticular desire  in  asking  the  question  to  learn 
the  child's  name.  What  he  wished  to  know 
was,  what,  according  to  the  customs  of  the 
country,  would  be  the  probable  province  and 
function  of  such  a  sort  of  girl  as  that,  coming 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  117 

alone  up  the  mountain  in  that  way  with  a  bur- 
den on  her  back.  Henry,  if  he  had  understood 
the  real  intent  and  meaning  of  the  question, 
could  easily  have  answered  it.  The  girl  lived 
in  a  little  hamlet  of  shepherds'  huts  farther  up 
the  mountain,  and  had  been  down  to  the  village 
to  buy  something  for  her  father  and  mother; 
and  she  was  now  coming  home  with  her  pur- 
chases in  the  basket  on  her  back.  All  this 
Henry  knew  very  well ;  but,  when  Rollo  asked 
who  the  girl  was,  Henry  thought  he  meant  to 
ask  who  she  herself  was  individually;  and  so, 
as  he  did  not  know  her  personally,  he  could 
not  tell. 

Travelers  often  get  disappointed  in  this  way 
in  asking  questions  of  the  natives  of  the 
country  in  which  they  are  traveling.  The 
people  do  not  understand  the  nature  and  bear- 
ing of  the  question,  and  they  themselves  are 
not  familiar  enough  with  the  language  to  ex- 
plain what  they  do  mean. 

The  guide  stood  for  a  minute  or  two  looking 
intently  at  the  girl  as  she  slowly  ascended  the 
path,  especially  when  she  passed  the  angles  of 
the  zig-zag,  for  there  she  turned  sometimes  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  show  her  face  more 
plainly. 

"No,"  said  he,  at  length;  "I  do  not  know 
her.  I  never  saw  her  before.  But  I'll  ask  her 
who  she  is  when  she  comes  up!" 

"Uncle  George!"  said  Rollo,  calling  out 
very  loudly  to  his  uncle,  who  was  at  some  dis- 
tance above. 

"Ay,  ay,"  said  Mr.  George,  responding. 


118  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

Rollo  attempted  to  look  up  to  see  where  his 
uncle  was  standing;  but  in  doing  this  he  had 
to  throw  his  head  back  so  far  as  to  bring  a  fear 
suddenly  over  him  of  falling  from  his  horse. 
So  he  desisted,  and  continued  his  conversation 
without  attempting  to  look. 

"Here  is  a  girl  coming  up  the  mountain  with 
a  basket  on  her  back.  Come  down  and  see 
her." 

"Come  up  here,"  said  Mr.  George,  "and  we 
will  wait  till  she  comes.  " 

So  Rollo  chirruped  to  his  horse  and  started 
along  again.  In  a  few  minutes  he  reached  the 
place  where  his  uncle  George  was  standing, 
and  there  they  all  waited  till  the  little  girl 
came  up. 

"Good-morning,"  said  the  girl,  as  soon  as 
she  came  near  enough  to  be  heard.  She  spoke 
the  words  in  the  German  language  and  with  a 
very  pleasant  smile  upon  her  face. 

The  peasants  in  Switzerland,  when  they  meet 
strangers  in  ascending  or  descending  the 
mountains,  always  accost  them  pleasantly,  and 
wish  them  good-morning  or  good-evening.  In 
most  other  countries,  strangers  meeting  each 
other  on  the  lead  pass  in  silence.  Perhaps  it 
is  the  loneliness  and  solitude  of  the  country 
and  the  sense  of  danger  and  awe  that  the  stu- 
pendous mountains  inspire  that  incline  people 
to  be  more  pleased  when  they  meat  each  other 
in  Switzerland,  even  if  they  are  strangers,  than 
in  the  more  cheerful  and  smiling  regions  of 
France  and  England. 

The  guide  said  something  to  the   girl,  but 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  119 

Rollo  could  not  understand  what  it  was,  for  he 
spoke,  and  the  answer  was  returned,  in  Ger- 
man. 

"She  says  her  name  is  Ninette,"  said  Henry. 

Rollo  s  attention  was  immediately  attracted 
to  the  form  of  the  basket  which  Ninette  wore 
and  to  the  manner  in  which  it  was  fastened  to 
her  back.  The  basket  was  comparatively 
small  at  the  bottom,  being  about  as  wide  as  the 
waist  of  the  girl:  but  it  grew  larger  toward 
the  top,  where  it  opened  as  wide  as  the  girl's 
shoulders — bein^  shaped  in  this  respect  in  con- 
formity with  the  shape  of  the  back  on  which  it 
was  to  be  borne. 

The  side  of  the  basket,  too,  which  lay 
against  the  back  was  flat,  so  as  to  fit  to  it  ex- 
actly. The  outer  side  was  rounded.  It  was 
open  at  the  top. 

The  basket  was  secured  to  its  place  upon  the 
child's  back  and  shoulders  by  means  of  two 
flat  strips  of  wood,  which  were  fastened  at  the 
upper  ends  of  them  to  the  back  of  the  basket 
near  the  top,  and  which  came  round  over  the 
shoulders  in  front,  and  then,  passing  under  the 
arms,  were  fastened  at  the  lower  ends  to  the 
basket  near  the  bottom.  The  basket  was  thus 
supported  in  its  place  and  carried  by  means  of 
the  pressure  of  these  straps  upon  the  shoul- 
ders. 

"Uncle  George,"  said  Rollo,  "I  should  like 
to  have  such  a  basket  as  that  and  such  a  pair  of 
straps  to  carry  it  by. ' ' 

"What  would  you  do  with  it,"  asked  Mr. 
George,  "if  you  had  it?" 


120  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

"Why,  it  would  be  very  convenient,"  said 
Rollo,  "in  America,  when  I  went  a-raspberry- 
ing.  You  see,  if  I  had  such  a  basket  as  that,  I 
could  bring  my  berries  home  on  my  back  and 
so  have  my  hands  free." 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "that  would  be  con- 
venient." 

"Besides,"  said  Rollo,  "it  would  be  a  curi- 
osity." 

"That's  true,"  replied  Mr.  George;  "but  it 
would  be  very  difficult  to  carry  so  bulky  a  thing 
home. " 

After  some  further  conversation  it  was  con- 
cluded not  to  buy  the  basket,  but  to  ask  the 
girl  if  she  would  be  willing  to  sell  the  straps, 
or  bows,  that  it  was  fastened  with.  These 
straps  were  really  quite  curious.  They  were 
made  of  some  very  hard  and  smooth-grained 
wood,  and  were  nicely  carved  and  bent  so  as  to 
fit  to  the  girl's  shoulders  quite  precisely. 

Accordingly,  Mr.  George,  speaking  in 
French,  requested  Henry  to  ask  the  girl 
whether  she  would  be  willing  to  sell  the  straps. 
Henry  immediately  addressed  the  girl  in  the 
German  language,  and  after  talking  with  her  a 
few  minutes  he  turned  again  to  Mr.  George 
and  Rollo  and  said  that  the  girl  would  rather 
not  sell  them  herself,  as  they  belonged  to  her 
father,  who  lived  about  half  a  mile  farther  up 
the  mountain.  But  she  was  sure  her  father 
would  sell  them  if  they  would  stop  at  his  cot- 
tage as  they  went  by.  He  would  either  sell 
them  that  pair,  she  said,  or  a  new  pair ;  for  he 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  121 

made  such  things  himself,  and  he  had  two  or 
three  new  pairs  in  his  cottage. 

"Very  well,"  said  Mr.  George;  "let  us  go 
on. " 

"Which  would  you  rather  have,"  said  Mr. 
George  to  Rollo,  as  they  resumed  their  march, 
"this  pair  or  some  new  ones?" 

"I  would  rather  have  this  pair,"  said  Rollo. 

"They  are  somewhat  soiled  and  worn,"  said 
Mr.  George. 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo;  "but  they  are  good  and 
strong;  and  as  soon  as  I  get  home  I  shall  rub 
them  all  off  clean  with  sand  paper  and  then 
have  them  varnished,  so  as  to  make  them  look 
very  bright  and  nice;  and  then  I  shall  keep 
them  for  a  curiosity.  I  would  rather  have  this 
pair,  for  then  I  can  tell  people  that  I  bought 
them  actually  off  the  shoulders  of  a  little  girl 
who  was  carrying  a  burden  with  them  up  the 
Alps." 

In  due  time  the  party  reached  the  little  ham- 
let where  Ninette  lived.  The  hamlet  consisted 
of  a  scattered  group  of  cabins  and  cow-houses 
on  a  shelving  green  more  than  a  thousand  feet 
above  the  valley.  The  girl  led  the  party  to 
the  door  of  her  father's  hut;  and  there,  through 
the  medium  of  Henry  as  interpreter,  they  pur- 
chased the  two  bows  for  a  very  small  sum  of 
money.  They  also  bought  a  drink  of  excellent 
milk  for  the  whole  party  of  Ninette's  mother 
and  then  resumed  their  journey. 

As  they  went  on  they  obtained  from  time  to 
time  very  grand  and  extended  views  of  the 
surrounding  mountains.     Whether  they  turned 


122  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

their  eyes  above  or  below  them,  the  prospect 
was  equally  wonderful.  In  the  latter  case 
they  looked  down  on  distant  villages;  some 
clinging  to  the  hillsides,  others  nestling  in  the 
valleys,  and  others  still  perched,  like  the  one 
where  Ninette  lived,  on  shelving  slopes  of 
green  pasture  land,  which  terminated  at  a 
short  distance  from  the  dwellings  on  the  brink 
of  the  most  frightful  precipices.  Above  were 
towering  forests  and  verdant  slopes  of  land, 
dotted  with  chalets  or  broken  here  and  there 
by  the  gray  rocks  which  appeared  among 
them.  Higher  still  were  lofty  crags,  with  lit- 
tle sunny  nooks  among  them — the  dizzy  pas- 
turages of  the  chamois;  and  above  these  im- 
mense fields  of  ice  and  snow,  which  pierced  the 
sky  with  the  glittering  peaks  and  summits  in 
which  they  terminated.  Mr.  George  and  Rollo 
paused  frequently,  as  they  continued  their  jour- 
ney, to  gaze  around  them  upon  these  stupen- 
dous scenes. 

At  length,  when  the  steepest  part  of  the  as- 
cent had  been  accomplished,  Mr.  George  said 
that  he  was  tired  of  climbing,  and  proposed 
that  Rollo  should  dismount  and  take  his  turn 
in  walking. 

"If  you  were  a  lady, "  said  Mr.  George,  "I 
would  let  you  ride  all  the  way.  But  you  are 
strong  and  capable,  and  as  well  able  to  walk 
as  I  am — better,  I  suppose,  in  fact,  so  you 
may  as  well  take  your  turn." 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo;  "I  should  like  it.  I  am 
tired  of  riding.  I  would  rather  walk  than 
not," 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  123 

So  Henry  assisted  Rollo  to  dismount,  and 
then  adjusted  the  stirrups  to  Mr.  George's  use, 
and  Mr.  George  mounted  into  the  saddle. 

"How  glad  I  am  to  come  to  the  end  of  my 
walking,"  said  Mr.  George,  "and  to  get  upon 
a  horse!" 

"How  glad  I  am  to  come  to  the  end  of  my 
riding,"  said  Rollo,  "and  to  get  upon  my 
feet!" 

Thus  both  of  the  travelers  seemed  pleased 
with  the  change.  The  road  now  became  far 
more  easy  to  be  traveled  than  before.  The 
steepest  part  of  the  ascent  had  been  sur- 
mounted, and  for  the  remainder  of  the  dis- 
tance the  path  followed  a  meandering  way 
over  undulating  land,  which,  though  not  steep, 
was  continually  ascending.  Here  and  there 
herds  of  cattle  were  seen  grazing;  and  there 
were  scattered  huts,  and  sometimes  little  ham- 
lets, where  the  peasants  lived  in  the  summer, 
to  tend  their  cows  and  make  butter  and  cheese 
from  their  milk.  In  the  fall  of  the  year  they 
drive  the  cattle  down  again  to  the  lower  val- 
leys; for  these  high  pasturages,  though  green 
and  sunny  in  the  summer  and  affording  an 
abundance  of  sweet  and  nutritious  grass  for 
the  sheep  and  cows  that  feed  upon  them,  are 
buried  deep  in  snows,  and  are  abandoned  to 
the  mercies  of  the  most  furious  tempests  and 
storms  during  all  the  winter  portion  of  the 
year.  Our  travelers  passed  many  scattered 
forests,  some  of  which  were  seen  clinging  to 
the  mountain  sides,  at  a  vast  elevation  above 
them.     In  others  men  were  at   work  felling 


124  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

trees  or  cutting  up  the  wood.  Rollo  stopped 
at  one  of  these  places  and  procured  a  small 
billet  of  the  Alpine  wood,  as  large  as  he  could 
conveniently  carry  in  his  pocket,  intending  to 
have  something  made  from  it  when  he  should 
get  home  to  America.  The  woodman,  at 
Henry's  request,  cut  out  this  billet  of  wood  for 
Rollo,  making  it  of  the  size  which  Rollo  indi- 
cated to  him  by  a  gesture  with  his  finger. 

At  one  time  the  party  met  a  company  of 
peasant  girls  coming  down  from  the  mountain. 
They  came  into  the  path  by  which  our  travelers 
were  ascending  from  a  side  path  which  seemed 
to  lead  up  a  secluded  glen.  These  girls  came 
dancing  gayly  along  with  bouquets  of  flowers 
in  their  hands  and  garlands*  in  their  hair. 
They  looked  bright  and  blooming,  and  seemed 
very  contented  and  happy. 

They  bowed  very  politely  to  Mr.  George  and 
to  Rollo  as  they  passed. 

"Guten  abend,"  said  they. 

These  are  the  German  words  for  "Good-eve- 
ning." 

"Guten  abend"  said  both  Mr.  George  and 
Rollo  in  reply. 

The  girls  thus  passed  by  and  went  on  their 
way  down  the  mountain. 

"Where  have  they  been?"  asked  Mr.  George 

"They  have  been  at  work  gathering  up  the 
small  stones  from  the  pasturages,  I  suppose," 
said  Henry.  "Companies  of  girls  go  out  for 
that  a  great  deal." 

After  getting  upon  the  horse,  Mr.  George 
took  care  to  keep  behind  Rollo  and  the  guide, 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  125 

He  knew  very  well  that  if  he  were  to  go  on  in 
advance  Rollo  would  exert  himself  more  than 
he  otherwise  would  do  under  the  influence  of 
a  sort  of  feeling  that  he  ought  to  try  to  keep 
up.  While  Rollo  was  on  the  horse  himself, 
having  the  guide  with  him,  too,  Mr.  George 
knew  that  there  was  no  danger  from  this 
source,  as  any  one  who  is  on  horseback  or  in  a 
carriage  never  has  the  feeling  of  being  left  be- 
hind when  a  companion  who  is  on  foot  by 
chance  gets  before  him.  Consequently,  while 
they  were  coming  up  the  steep  part  of  the 
mountain,  Mr.  George  went  on  as  fast  as  he 
pleased,  leaving  Rollo  and  Henry  to  come  on 
at  their  leisure.  But  now  his  kind  considera- 
tion for  Rollo  induced  him  to  keep  carefully 
behind. 

"Now,  Rollo,"  said  he,  "you  and  Henry 
may  go  on  just  as  fast  or  just  as  slow  as  you 
please,  without  paying  any  regard  to  me.  I 
shall  follow  along  at  my  leisure." 

Thus  Rollo,  seeing  that  Mr.  George  was  be- 
hind, went  on  very  leisurely,  and  enjoyed  his 
walk  and  his  talk  with  Henry  very  much. 

"Did  you  ever  study  English,  Henry?"  said 
Rollo. 

"No,"  said  Henry;  "but  I  wish  I  could 
speak  English,  very  much." 

"Why?"  asked  Rollo. 

"Because  there  are  so  many  English  people 
coming  here  that  I  have  to  guide  up  the 
mountains." 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,  "you  can  begin  now.  I 
will  teach  you." 


126  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

So  he  began  to  teach  the  guide  to  say,  ' '  How 
do  you  do?"  in  English. 

This  conversation  between  Rollo  and  Henry 
was  in  French.  Rollo  had  studied  French  a 
great  deal  by  the  help  of  books  when  he  was 
at  home,  and  he  had  taken  so  much  pains  to 
improve  by  practice  since  he  had  been  in 
France  and  Switzerland  that  he  could  now  get 
along  in  a  short  and  simple  conversation  very 
well. 

While  our  party  had  been  coming  up  the 
mountain,  the  weather,  though  perfectly  clear 
and  serene  in  the  morning,  had  become  some- 
what overcast.  Misty  clouds  were  to  be  seen 
here  and  there  floating  along  the  sides  or  rest- 
ing on  the  summits  of  the  mountains.  At 
length,  while  Rollo  was  in  the  midst  of  the 
English  lesson  which  he  was  giving  to  the 
guide,  his  attention  was  arrested,  just  as  they 
were  emerging  from  the  border  of  a  little 
thicket  of  stunted  evergreens,  by  what  seemed 
to  be  a  prolonged  clap  of  thunder.  It  came 
apparently  out  of  a  mass  of  clouds  and  vapor 
which  Rollo  saw  moving  majestically  in  the 
southern  sky. 

"Thunder!"  exclaimed  Rollo,  looking 
alarmed.     "There's  thunder. " 

"No,"  said  Henry;  "an  avalanche." 

The  sound  rolled  and  reverberated  in  the 
sky  for  a  considerable  time  like  a  prolonged 
peal  of  thunder.  Rollo  thought  that  Henry 
must  be  mistaken  in  supposing  it  an  ava- 
lanche. 

At  this  moment  Rollo,   looking  round,  saw 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  127 

Mr.  George  coming  up,  on  his  horse,  at  a  turn 
of  the  path  a  little  way  behind  them. 

"Henry,"  said  Mr.  George,  "there  is  a  thun- 
der shower  coming  up;  we  must  hasten  on.  " 

"No,"  said  Henry;  "that  was  an  avalanche." 

"An  avalanche!"  exclaimed  Mr.  George. 
"Why,  the  sound  came  out  of  the  middle  of  the 
sky." 

"It  was  an  avalanche,"  said  the  guide, 
"from  the  Jungfrau.  See!"  he  added,  point- 
ing up  into  the  sky. 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  both  looked  in  the 
direction  where  Henry  pointed,  and  there  they 
saw  a  vast  rocky  precipice  peering  out  through 
a  break  in  the  clouds  high  up  in  the  sky.  An 
immense  snow  bank  was  reposing  upon  its 
summit.  The  glittering  whiteness  of  this  snow 
contrasted  strongly  with  the  sombre  gray  of 
the  clouds  through  which,  as  through  an  open- 
ing in  a  curtain,  it  was  seen. 

Presently  another  break  in  the  clouds,  and 
then  another,  occurred ;  at  each  of  which  tow- 
ering rocks  or  great  perpendicular  walls  of  glit- 
tering ice  and  snow  came  into  view. 

"The  Jungfrau,"  said  the  guide. 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  gazed  at  this  spectacle 
for  some  minutes  in  silence,  when  at  length 
Rollo  said: 

"Why,  uncle  George!  the  sky  is  all  full  of 
rocks  and  ice!" 

"It  is,  indeed!"  said  Mr.   George. 

It  was  rather  fortunate  than  otherwise  that 
the  landscape  was  obscured  with  clouds  when 
Mr.  George  and  Rollo  first  came  into  the  vicin- 


128  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

ity  of  the  Jungfrau,  as  the  astonishing  spec- 
tacle of  rocks  and  precipices  and  immense 
accumulations  of  snow  and  ice,  breaking  out  as 
it  were  through  the  clouds  all  over  the  sky, 
was  in  some  respects  more  impressive  than 
the  full  and  unobstructed  view  of  the  whole 
mountain  would  have  been. 

"I  wish  the  clouds  would  clear  away,"  said 
Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George.  "I  should  like  to 
see  the  whole  side  of  the  mountain  very 
much." 

Here  another  long  and  heavy  peal,  like  thun- 
der, began  to  be  heard.  Mr.  George  stopped 
his  horse  to  listen.  Rollo  and  Henry  stopped 
too.  The  sound  seemed  to  commence  high  up 
among  the  clouds.  The  echoes  and  reverbera- 
tions were  reflected  from  the  rocks  and  preci- 
pices all  around  it;  but  the  peal  seemed  slowly 
and  gradually  to  descend  towards  the  horizon; 
and  finally,  after  the  lapse  of  two  or  three 
minutes,  it  entirely  ceased. 

The  travelers  paused  a  moment  after  the 
sound  ceased  and  continued  to  listen.  When 
they  found  that  all  was  still  they  began  to 
move  on  again. 

"I  wish  I  could  have  seen  that  avalanche," 
said  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George.  "I  hope  the  clouds 
will  clear  away  by  the  time  we  get  to  the  inn." 

It  was  just  about  sunset  when  the  party 
leached  the  inn.  Rollo  was  beginning  to  get 
a  little  tired,  though  the  excitement  of  the  ex- 
cursion and  the  effect  produced  on  his  mind  by 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  12d 

the  strange  aspect  of  everything  around  him 
inspired  him  with  so  much  animation  and 
strength  that  he  held  on  in  his  walk  very  well 
indeed.  It  is  true  that  a  great  portion  of  the 
mountain  scenery  around  him  was  concealed 
from  view  by  the  clouds ;  but  there  was  some- 
thing in  the  appearance  of  the  rocks,  in  the 
character  of  the  vegetation,  and  especially  in 
the  aspect  and  expression  of  the  patches  of 
snow  which  were  to  be  seen  here  and  there  in 
nooks  and  corners  near  the  path, — the  remains 
of  the  vast  accumulations  of  the  preceding 
winter  which  the  sun  had  not  yet  dispelled, — 
that  impressed  Rollo  continually  with  a  senti- 
ment of  wonder  and  awe,  and  led  him  to  feel 
that  he  had  attained  to  a  vast  elevation,  and 
that  he  was  walking,  as  he  really  was,  among 
the  clouds. 

The  inn,  when  the  party  first  came  in  sight 
of  it,  appeared  more  like  a  log  cabin  in 
America  than  like  a  well-known  and  much-fre- 
quented European  hotel.  It  stood  on  a  very 
small  plot  of  ground,  which  formed  a  sort  of 
projection  on  a  steep  mountain  side,  facing  the 
Jungfrau.  ,  In  front  of  the  hotel  the  land  de- 
scended very  rapidly  for  a  considerable  dis- 
tance. The  descent  terminated  at  last  on  the 
brink  of  an  enormous  ravine  which  separated 
the  base  of  the  Wengern  Alp  from  that  of  the 
Jungfrau.  Behind  the  house  the  land  rose  in 
a  broad,  green  slope,  dotted  with  Alpine  flow- 
ers and  terminating  in  a  smooth,  rounded  sum- 
mit far  above.  The  house  itself  seemed  small, 
and  was  rudely  constructed.     There  was  a  sort 

9    Switzerland 


130  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

of  piazza  in  front  of  it,  with  a  bench  and  a 
table  before  it. 

"That  is  where  the  people  sit,  I  suppose," 
said  Mr.  George,  "in  pleasant  weather  to  see 
the  Jungfrau. " 

"Yes,"  saidRollo. 

"For  the  Jungfrau  must  be  over  there,"  said 
Mr.  George,  pointing  among  the  clouds  in  the 
southern  sky. 

All  doubt  about  the  position  of  the  mountain 
was  removed  at  the  instant  that  Mr.  George 
had  spoken  these  words,  by  another  avalanche, 
which  just  at  that  moment  commenced  its  fall. 
They  all  stopped  to  listen.  The  sound  was 
greatly  prolonged,  sometimes  roaring  continu- 
ously for  a  time,  like  a  cataract,  and  then  rum- 
bling and  crashing  like  a  peal  of  thunder. 

4 '  What  a  pity  that  the  clouds  are  in  the  way, ' ' 
said  Rollo,  "so  that  we  can't  see.  Do  you 
think  it  will  clear  up  before  we  go  away?" 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George.  "I  am  very  sure 
it  will ;  for  I  am  determined  not  to  go  away  till 
it  does  clear  up." 

There  were  one  or  two  buildings  attached  to 
the  inn  which  served  apparently  as  barns  and 
sheds.  The  door  of  entrance  was  round  in  a 
corner  formed  by  the  connection  of  one  of 
these  buildings  with  the  house.  Henry  led  the 
horse  up  to  this  door,  and  Mr.  George  dis- 
mounted. The  guide  led  the  horse  away,  and 
Rollo  and  Mr.  George  went  into  the  house.  A 
young  and  very  blooming  Swiss  girl  received 
them  in  the  hall  and  opened  a  door  for  them 
which  led  to  the  public  sitting  room. 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  131 

The  sitting  room  was  a  large  apartment, 
which  extended  along  the  whole  front  of  the 
house.  The  windows,  of  course  looked  out  to- 
ward the  Jungfrau.  There  was  a  long  table  in 
the  middle  of  the  room,  and  one  or  two 
smaller  ones  in  the  back  corners.  At  these 
tables  two  or  three  parties  were  seated,  eating 
their  dinners.  In  one  of  the  front  corners 
was  a  fireplace,  with  a  small  fire,  made  of  pine 
wood,  burning  on  the  hearth.  A  young  lady 
was  sitting  near  this  fire,  reading.  Another 
was  at  a  small  table  near  it,  writing  in  her 
journal.  Around  the  walls  of  the  room  were  a 
great  many  engravings  and  colored  litho- 
graphs of  Swiss  scenery;  among  them  were 
several  views  of  the  Jungfrau.  On  the  whole, 
the  room,  though  perfectly  plain  and  even  rude 
in  all  its  furniture  and  appointments,  had  a 
very  comfortable  and  attractive  appearance. 

"What  a  snug  and  pleasant-looking  place!" 
said  Rollo,  whispering  to  Mr.  George  as  they 
went  in. 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George.  "It  is  just  ex- 
actly such  a  place  as  I  wished  to  find. " 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  were  both  of  them 
tired  and  hungry.  They  first  called  for  rooms. 
The  maid  took  them  upstairs  and  gave  them 
two  small  rooms  next  each  other.  The  rooms 
were,  in  fact,  very  small.  The  furniture  in 
them,  too,  was  of  the  plainest  description; 
but  everything  was  neat  and  comfortable,  and 
the  aspect  of  the  interior  of  them  was,  on  the 
whole,  quite  attractive. 

In  about  fifteen  minutes  Rollo  knocked  at 


132  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

Mr.  George's  door  and  asked  if  he  was  ready 
to  go  down. 

"Not  quite,"  said  Mr.  George;  "but  I  wish 
that  you  would  go  down  and  order  dinner. ' ' 

So  Rollo  went  down  again  into  the  public 
room  and  asked  the  maid  if  she  could  get  them 
some  dinnor. 

"Yes,"  said  the  maid.  "What  would  you 
like  to  have?" 

Rollo  was  considerate  enough  to  know  that 
there  could  be  very  little  to  eat  in  the  house 
except  what  had  been  brought  up  in  a  very 
toilsome  and  difficult  manner,  from  the  val- 
leys below,  by  the  zigzag  paths  which  he  and 
his  uncle  had  been  climbing.  So  he  said  in 
reply : 

"Whatever  you  please.  It  is  not  important 
to  us." 

The  maid  then  told  him  what  they  had  in 
the  house;  and  Rollo,  selecting  from  these 
things,  ordered  what  he  thought  would  make 
an  excellent  dinner.  The  dinner,  in  fact,  when 
it  came  to  the  table,  proved  to  be  a  very  ex- 
cellent one,  indeed.  It  consisted  of  broiled 
chicken,  some  most  excellent  fried  potatoes, 
eggs,  fresh  and  very  nice  bread,  and  some 
honey.  For  drink,  they  had  at  first  water; 
and  at  the  end  of  the  meal  some  French 
coffee,  which,  being  diluted  with  boiled  milk 
that  was  very  rich  and  sweet,  was  truly  deli- 
cious. 

"I  have  not  had  so  good  a  dinner,"  said  Mr. 
George,  "since  I  have  been  in  Europe." 

"No,"  said  Rollo;  "nor  I." 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  133 

"It  is  owing  in  part,  I  suppose,  to  the  appe- 
tite we  have  got  in  climbing  up  the  mountain, " 
said  Mr.  George. 

Just  as  the  young  gentlemen  had  finished 
their  dinner  and  were  about  to  rise  from  the 
table,  their  attention  was  attracted  by  an  ex- 
clamation of  delight  which  came  from  one  of 
the  young  ladies  who  were  sitting  at  the  fire- 
place when  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  came  in. 

"O,  Emma,"  said  she,  "come  here!" 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  looked  up,  and  they 
saw  that  the  young  lady  whose  voice  they  had 
heard  was  standing  at  the  window.  Emma 
rose  from  her  seat  and  went  to  the  window  in 
answer  to  the  call.  Mr.  George  and  Rollo 
looked  out,  too,  at  another  window.  They  saw 
a  spectacle  which  filled  them  with  astonish- 
ment. 

"It  is  clearing  away,"  said  Rollo.  "Let  us 
go  out  in  front  of  the  house  and  look. " 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George,  "we  will." 

So  they  both  left  their  seats,  and,  putting  on 
their  caps,  they  went  out.  As  soon  as  they 
reached  the  platform  where  the  bench  and  the 
table  were  standing  they  gazed  on  the  scene 
which  was  presented  to  their  view  with  won- 
der and  delight. 

It  was,  indeed,  clearing  away.  The  clouds 
were  "lifting"  from  the  mountains;  and  the 
sun,  which  had  been  for  some  hours  obscured, 
was  breaking  forth  in  the  west  and  illuminat- 
ing the  whole  landscape  with  his  setting  beams. 
Opposite  to  where  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  stood, 
across  the  valley,  they  could  see  the   whole 


134  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

mighty  mass  of  the  Jungfrau  coming  into  view 
beneath  the  edge  of  the  cloudy  curtain  which 
was  slowly  rising. 

The  lower  portion  of  the  mountain  was  an 
immense  precipice,  the  foot  of  which  was  hid- 
den from  view  in  the  great  chasm,  or  ravine 
which  separated  the  Jungfrau  from  the  Wen- 
gern  Alp.  Above  this  were  rocks  and  great 
sloping  fields  of  snow  formed  from  avalanches 
which  had  fallen  down  from  above.  Still 
higher,  there  were  brought  to  view  vast  fields 
of  ice  and  snow,  with  masses  of  rock  breaking 
out  here  and  there  among  them,  some  in  the 
form  of  precipices  and  crags,  and  others  shoot- 
ing up  in  jagged  pinnacles  and  peaks,  rising 
to  dizzy  heights,  to  the  summits  of  which  noth- 
ing but  the  condor  or  the  eagle  could  ever 
attain.  Still  higher  were  precipices  of  blue 
and  pellucid  ice,  and  boundless  fields  of  glitter- 
ing snow,  and  immense  drifts,  piled  one  above 
the  other  in  vast  volumes,  and  overhanging 
the  cliffs  as  if  just  ready  to  fall. 

In  a  short  time  the  clouds  rose  so  as  to  clear 
the  summit  of  the  mountain;  and  then  the 
whole  mighty  mass  was  seen  revealed  fully  to 
view,  glittering  in  the  sunbeams  and  filling 
half  the  sky. 

The  other  guests  of  the  inn  came  out  upon 
the  platform  while  Rollo  and  Mr.  George  were 
there,  having  wrapped  themselves  previously 
in  their  coats  and  shawls,  as  the  evening  air 
was  cool.  Some  other  parties  of  travelers 
came,  too,  winding  their  way  slowly  up  the 
same  pathway  where   Mr.  George    and   Rollo 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  135 

had  come.  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  paid  very- 
little  attention  to  these  new  comers,  their  minds 
being  wholly  occupied  by  the  mountain. 

In  a  very  short  time  after  the  face  of  the 
Jungfrau  came  fully  into  view,  the  attention 
of  all  the  company  that  were  looking  at  the 
scene  was  arrested  by  the  commencement  of 
another  peal  of  the  same  thundering  sound 
that  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  had  heard  with  so 
much  wonder  in  coming  up  the  mountain.  A 
great  many  exclamations  imtnediately  broke 
out  from  the  party. 

"There!  hark!  look!"  said  they.  "An  aval- 
anche!    An  avalanche!" 

The  sound  was  loud  and  almost  precisely 
like  thunder.  Every  one  looked  in  the  direc- 
tion from  which  it  proceeded.  There  they 
soon  saw,  half-way  up  the  mountain,  a  stream 
of  snow,  like  a  cataract,  creeping  slowly  over 
the  brink  of  a  precipice,  and  falling  into  a  con- 
tinued torrent  upon  the  rocks  below.  From 
this  place  they  could  see  it  slowly  creeping 
down  the  long  slope  toward  another  precipice, 
and  where,  when  it  reached  the  brink,  it  fell 
over  in  another  cataract,  producing  another 
long  peal  of  thunder,  which,  being  repeated  by 
the  echoes  of  the  mountains  and  rocks  around, 
filled  the  whole  heavens  with  its  rolling  rever- 
berations. In  this  manner  the  mass  of  ice  and 
snow  went  down  slope  after  slope  and  over 
precipice  after  precipice,  till  at  length  it  made 
its  final  plunge  into  the  great  chasm  at  the 
foot  of  the  mountain  and  disappeared  from 
view. 


136  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

In  the  course  of  an  hour  several  other  ava- 
lanches were  heard  and  seen;  and  when  at 
length  it  grew  too  dark  to  see  them  any  longer, 
the  thundering  roar  of  them  was  heard  from 
time  to  time  all  the  night  long. 

Rollo,  however,  was  so  tired  that,  though  he 
went  to  bed  quite  early,  he  did  not  hear  the 
avalanches  or  anything  else  until  Mr.  George 
called  him  the  next  morninaf. 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  137 


CHAPTER  X. 

GOING    DOWN    THE    MOUNTAIN. 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  met  with  various  ad- 
ventures and  incidents  in  going  down  the  next 
day  to  Grindelwald  which  are  quite  charac- 
teristic of  mountain  traveling  in  Switzerland. 

They  did  not  set  out  very  early  in  the  morn- 
ing, as  Mr.  George  wished  to  stay  as  long  as 
possible  to  gaze  on  the  face  of  the  Jungfrau 
and  watch  the  avalanches. 

"Rollo,"  said  he,  as  they  were  standing  to- 
gether in  front  of  the  hotel  after  breakfast, 
"how  would  you  like  to  go  up  with  me  to  the 
top  of  that  hill?" 

So  saying,  Mr.  George  pointed  to  the  great 
rounded  summit  which  was  seen  rising  behind 
the  hotel. 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo;  "I  should  like  to  go  very 
much,  indeed." 

"Very  well,"  said  Mr.  George;  "we  will  go. 
But  first  let  me  get  my  pressing  book  to  put 
some  flowers  in,  in  case  we  find  any." 

Mr.  George's  pressing  book  was  a  contriv- 
ance which  he  had  invented  for  the  more  con- 
venient desiccation  of  such  flowers  as  he  might 
gather  in  his  travels  and  wish  to  carry  home 
with  him  and  preserve,  either  for  botanical 
specimens  or  as  souvenirs  for  his  friends.     It 


138  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

was  made  by  taking  out  all  the  leaves  of  a 
small  book  and  replacing  them  with  an  equal 
number  of  loose  leaves,  made  for  the  purpose, 
of  blotting  paper,  and  trimmed  to  the  right 
size.  Such  small  flowers  as  he  might  gather 
in  the  various  places  that  he  visited  could  be 
much  more  conveniently  pressed  and  preserved 
between  these  loose  lea\es  of  blotting  paper 
than  between  the  leaves  of  an  ordinary  book. 

So  Mr.  George,  taking  his  pressing  book  in 
his  hand,  led  the  way;  and  Rollo  following 
him,  they  attempted  to  ascend  the  hill  behind 
the  inn.  They  found  the  ascent,  however, 
extremely  steep  and  difficult.  There  were  no 
rocks  and  no  roughness  of  any  kind  in  the  way. 
It  was  merely  a  grassy  slope  like  the  steep  face 
of  a  terrace;  but  it  was  so  steep  that,  after 
Mr.  George  and  Rollo  had  scrambled  up  two 
or  three  hundred  feet,  it  made  Rollo  almost 
dizzy  to  look  down ;  and  he  began  to  cling  to 
the  grass  and  to  feel  afraid. 

"Rollo,"  said  Mr.  George,  "I  am  almost 
afraid  to  climb  up  here  any  higher.  Do  you 
feel  afraid?" 

"No,  sir, "said  Rollo,  endeavoring  at  the 
same  time  to  reassure  himself.  "No,  sir;  I  am 
not  much  afraid. " 

"Let  us  stop  a  few  minutes  to  rest  and  look 
at  the  mountain,"  said  Mr.  George. 

Mr.  George  knew  very  well  that  there  was 
no  real  danger;  for  the  slope,  though  very 
steep,  was  very  grassy  from  the  top  to  the  bot- 
tom; and  even  if  Rollo  had  fallen  and  rolled 
down  it  could  not  have  done  him  much  harm. 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  139 

After  a  short  pause,  to  allow  Rollo  to  get  a 
little  familiar  with  the  scene,  Mr.  George  be- 
gan to  move  on.  Rollo  followed.  Both  Rollo 
and  Mr.  George  would  occasionally  look  up  to 
see  how  far  they  were  from  the  top.  It  was 
very  difficult,  however,  to  look  up,  as  in  doing 
so  it  was  necessary  to  lean  the  head  so  far  back 
that  they  came  very  near  losing  their  balance. 

After  going  on  for  about  half  an  hour,  Mr. 
George  said  that  he  did  not  see  that  they  were 
any  nearer  the  top  of  the  hill  than  they  were 
at  the  beginning. 

"Nor  I  either,"  said  Rollo;  "and  I  think  we 
had  better  go  back  again.  " 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  George,  "we  will;  but  let 
us  first  stop  here  a  few  minutes  to  look  at  the 
Jungfrau. " 

The  view  of  the  Jungfrau  was,  of  course, 
more  commanding  here  than  it  was  down  at 
the  inn.  So  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  remained 
some  time  at  their  resting  place  gazing  at  the 
mountain  and  watching  for  avalanches.  At 
length  they  returned  to  the  inn ;  and  an  hour 
or  two  afterward  they  set  out  on  their  journey 
to  Grindelwald. 

The  reader  will  recollect  that  Grindelwald 
was  the  valley  on  the  other  side  of  the  Wen- 
gem  Alp  from  Lauterbrunnen,  and  that  our 
travelers,  having  come  up  one  way,  were 
going  down  the  other. 

The  distance  from  the  inn  at  the  Wengern 
Alp  to  Grindelwald  is  seven  or  eight  miles. 
For  a  time  the  path  ascends,  for  the  inn  is  not 
at  the  summit  of  the  pass.     Until  it  attains  the 


140  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

summit  it  leads  through  a  region  of  hills  and 
ravines,  with  swamps,  morasses,  precipices  of 
rocks,  and  great  patches  of  snow  scattered  here 
and  there  along  the  way.  At  one  place  Rollo 
met  with  an  adventure  which  for  a  moment 
put  him  in  considerable  danger.  It  was  at  a 
place  where  the  path  led  along  on  the  side  of 
the  mountain,  with  a  smooth  grassy  slope 
above  and  a  steep  descent  ending  in  another 
smooth  grassy  slope  below.  At  a  little  dis- 
tance forward  there  was  a  great  patch  of  snow, 
the  edge  of  which  came  over  the  path  and  cov- 
ered it. 

A  heavy  mist  had  come  up  just  before  Rollo 
reached  this  place,  and  he  had  accordingly 
spread  his  umbrella  over  his  head.  He  was 
riding  along,  holding  the  bridle  in  one  hand 
and  his  umbrella  in  the  other,  so  that  both  his 
hands  were  confined.  Mr.  George  was  walk- 
ing at  some  distance  before.  The  guide,  too, 
was  a  little  in  advance,  for  the  path  was  too 
narrow  for  him  to  walk  by  the  side  of  the 
horse ;  and,  as  the  way  here  was  smooth  and 
pretty  level,  he  did  not  consider  it  necessary 
that  he  should  be  in  very  close  attendance  on 
Rollo. 

Things  being  in  this  condition,  the  horse — 
when  he  came  in  sight  of  the  snow,  which  lay 
covering  the  path  at  a  little  distance  before 
him — concluded  that  it  would  be  safer  both 
for  him  and  for  his  rider  that  he  should  not 
attempt  to  go  through  it,  having  learned  by 
experience  that  his  feet  would  sink  sometimes 
to  great   depths  in   such  cases.     So  he  deter- 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  141 

mined  to  turn  round  and  go  back.  He  accord- 
ingly stopped;  and  turning  his  head  toward 
the  grassy  bank  above  the  path  and  his  heels 
toward  the  brink  on  the  other  side,  as  horses 
always  do  when  they  undertake  such  a 
manoeuvre  in  a  narrow  path,  he  attempted  to 
"go  about."  Rollo  was,  of  course,  utterly  un- 
able to  do  anything  to  control  him  except  to 
pull  one  of  the  reins  to  bring  him  back  into  the 
path,  and  strike  his  heels  into  the  horse's  side 
as  if  he  were  spurring  him.  This,  however, 
only  made  the  matter  worse.  The  horse 
backed  off  the  brink ;  and  both  he  and  Rollo, 
falling  head  over  heels,  rolled  down  the  steep 
slope  together. 

And  not  together  exactly,  either;  for  Rollo 
who  was  usually  pretty  alert  and  ready  in 
emergencies  of  difficulty  or  danger,  when  he 
found  himself  rolling  down  the  slope,  though 
he  could  not  stop,  still  contrived  to  wriggle 
and  twist  himself  off  to  one  side,  so  as  to  get 
clear  of  the  horse  and  roll  off  himself  in  a 
different  direction.  They  both,  however,  the 
animal  and  the  boy,  soon  came  to  a  stop. 
Rollo  was  up  in  an  instant.  The  horse,  too, 
contrived,  after  some  scrambling,  to  gain  his 
feet.  All  this  time  the  guide  remained  in  the 
path  on  the  brink  of  the  descent  transfixed 
with  astonishment  and  consternation. 

"Henry,"  said  Rollo,  looking  up  to  the 
guide,  "what  is  the  French  for  head  over 
heels?" 

A  very  decided  but  somewhat  equivocal 
smile  spread  itself  over  Henry's  features  on 


142  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

hearing  this  question,  which,  however,  he  did 
not  understand;  and  he  immediately  began  to 
run  down  the  bank  to  get  the  horse. 

"Because,"  said  Rollo,  still  speaking  in 
French,  "that  is  what  in  English  we  call  going 
head  over  heels. " 

Henry  led  the  horse  round  by  a  circuitous 
way  back  to  the  path.  Rollo  followed;  and 
as  soon  as  they  reached  it,  Rollo  mounted 
again.  Henry  then  took  hold  of  the  bridle  of 
the  horse  and  led  him  along  till  they  got 
through  the  snow;  after  which  they  went  on 
without  any  further  difficulty. 

The  path  led  for  a  time  along  a  very  wild 
and  desolate  region,  which  seemed  to  be  bor- 
dered on  the  right,  at  a  distance  of  two  or 
three  miles,  by  a  range  of  stupendous  preci- 
pices, surmounted  by  peaks  covered  with  ice 
and  snow,  which  presented  to  the  view  a  spec- 
tacle of  the  most  astonishing  grandeur.  At 
one  point  in  the  path  Rollo  saw  at  a  distance 
before  him  a  number  of  buildings  scattered 
over  a  green  slope  of  land. 

"Ah,"  said  he  to  the  guide,  "we  are  coming 
to  a  village." 

"No,"  said  the  guide.  "It  is  a  pasturage. 
We  are  too  high  yet  for  a  village. " 

One  asking  for  a  further  explanation,  Rollo 
learned  that  the  mountaineers  were  accustomed 
to  drive  their  herds  up  the  mountains  in  the 
summer  to  places  too  cold  to  be  inhabited  all 
the  year  round,  and  to  live  there  with  them  in 
these  little  huts  during  the  two  or  three  months 
while  the  grass  was  green.      The  men  would 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  143 

bring  up  their  milking  pails,  their  pans,  their 
churns,  their  cheese  presses,  and  their  kettles 
for  cooking,  and  thus  live  in  a  sort  of  encamp- 
ment while  the  grass  lasted,  and  make  butter 
and  cheese  to  carry  down  the  mountain  with 
them  when  they  returned. 

At  one  time  Rollo  saw  at  the  door  of  one  of 
the  huts  a  man  with  what  seemed  to  be  a  long 
pole  in  his  hand.  It  was  bent  at  the  lower 
end.  The  man  came  out  of  a  hut,  and,  putting 
the  bent  end  of  the  pole  to  the  ground,  he 
brought  the  other  up  near  to  bis  mouth,  and 
seemed  to  be  waiting  for  the  travelers  to  come 
down  to  him. 

"What  is  he  going  to  do?"  asked  Rollo. 

"He  has  got  what  we  call  an  Alpine  horn," 
said  the  guide;  "and  he  is  going  to  blow  it  for 
you,  to  let  you  hear  the  echoes." 

So,  when  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  reached  the 
place,  the  man  blew  into  the  end  of  his  pole, 
which  proved  to  be  hollow,  and  it  produced  a 
very  loud  sound,  like  that  of  a  trumpet.  The 
sounds  were  echoed  against  the  face  of  a 
mountain  which  was  opposite  to  the  place  in  a 
very  remarkable  manner.  Mr.  George  paid 
the  man  a  small  sum  of  money,  and  then  they 
went  on. 

Not  long  afterward  they  came  to  another 
hut,  which  was  situated  opposite  to  a  part  of 
the  mountain  range  where  there  was  a  great 
accumulation  of  ice  and  snow,  that  seemed  to 
hand  suspended,  as  it  were,  as  if  just  ready  to 
fall.  A  man  stood  at  the  door  of  this  hut  with 
a  small  iron  cannon,  which  was  mounted  some- 


144  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

what    rudely    on    a    block    of  wood,    in    his 
hand. 

"What  is  he  going  to  do  with  that  cannon?" 
asked  Rollo. 

"He  is  going  to  fire  it,"  said  Henry,  "to 
start  down  the  avalanches  from  the  mountain. " 

Henry  here  pointed  to  the  face  of  the  moun- 
tain opposite  to  where  they  were  standing,  and 
showed  Rollo  the  immense  masses  of  ice  and 
snow  that  seemed  to  hang  suspended  there, 
ready  to  fall. 

It  is  customary  to  amuse  travelers  in  Switzer- 
land with  the  story  that  the  concussion  pro- 
duced by  the  discharge  of  a  gun  or  a  cannon 
will  sometimes  detach  these  masses,  and  thus 
hasten  the  fall  of  an  avalanche;  and  though 
the  experiment  is  always  tried  when  travelers 
pass  these  places,  I  never  yet  heard  of  a  case 
in  which  the  effect  was  really  produced.  At 
any  rate,  in  this  instance, — though  the  man 
loaded  his  cannon  heavily,  and  rammed  the 
charge  down  well,  and  though  the  report  was 
very  loud  and  the  echoes  were  extremely  sharp 
and  much  prolonged, — there  were  no  ava- 
lanches started  by  the  concussion  Rollo  and 
Mr.  George  watched  the  vast  snow  banks  that 
overhung  the  cliffs  with  great  interest  for  sev- 
eral minutes ;  but  they  all  remained  immovable= 

So  Mr.  George  paid  the  man  a  small  sum  of 
money,  and  then  they  went  on. 

After  going  on  for  an  hour  or  two  longer  on 
this  vast  elevation,  the  path  began  gradually 
to  descend  into  the  valley  of  Grindelwald. 
The  village   of   Grindelwald   at   length   came 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  145 

into  view,  with  the  hundreds  of  cottages  and 
hamlets  that  were  scattered  over  the  more  fer- 
tile and  cultivated  region  that  surround  it. 
The  travelers  could  look  down,  also,  upon  the 
great  glaciers  of  Grindelwald — two  mighty 
streams  of  ice,  half  a  mile  wide  and  hundreds 
of  feet  deep,  which  come  flowing  very  slowly 
down  from  the  higher  mountains,  and  termin- 
ate in  icy  precipices  among  the  fields  and  orch- 
ards of  the  valley.  They  determined  to  go  and 
explore  one  of  these  glaciers  the  next  day. 

As  they  drew  near  to  the  village,  the  people 
of  the  scattered  cottages  came  out  continually, 
as  they  saw  them  coming,  with  various  plans 
to  get  money  from  them.  At  one  place  two 
pretty  little  peasant  girls,  in  the  Grindelwald 
costume,  came  out  with  milk  for  them.  One 
of  the  girls  held  the  pitcher  and  the  other  a 
mug;  and  they  gave  Mr.  George  and  Rollo 
good  drinks.  At  another  house  a  boy  came 
out  with  filberts  to  sell ;  and  at  another  the 
merchandise  consisted  of  crystals  and  other 
shining  minerals  which  had  been  collected  in 
the  mountains  near. 

At  one  time  Rollo  saw  before  him  three  chil- 
dren standing  in  a  row  by  the  side  of  the  road. 
They  seemed  to  have  something  in  their  hands. 
When  he  reached  the  place,  he  found  that  they 
had  for  sale  some  very  cunning  little  Swiss 
cottages  carved  in  wood.  These  carvings  were 
extremely  small  and  very  pretty.  Each  one 
was  put  in  a  small  box  for  safe  transportation. 
In  some  cases  the  children  had  nothing  to  sell, 
and  they  simply  held  out  their  hands  to  beg  as 

10    Switzerland 


146  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

the  travelers  went  by ;  and  there  were  several 
lame  persons,  and  idiots,  and  blind  persons,  and 
other  objects  of  misery  that  occasionally 
appeared  imploring  charity.  As,  however, 
these  unfortunates  were  generally  satisfied 
with  an  exceedingly  small  donation,  it  did  not 
cost  much  to  make  them  all  look  very  happy. 
There  is  a  Swiss  coin,  of  the  value  of  a  fifth 
part  of  a  cent,  which  was  generally  enough  to 
give ;  so  that,  for  a  New  York  shilling,  Rollo 
found  he  could  make  more  than  sixty  donations 
— which  was  certainly  very  cheap  charity. 

"In  fact,"  said  Rollo,  "it  is  so  cheap  that  I 
would  rather  give  them  the  money  than  not." 

At  length  the  party  arrived  safely  at  Grin- 
delwald  and  put  up  at  an  excellent  inn,  with 
windows  looking  out  upon  the  glaciers.  The 
next  day  they  went  to  see  the  glaciers;  and 
on  the  day  following  they  returned  to  Inter- 
lachen. 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND,  147 


CHAPTER  XI. 

GLACIERS. 

A  glacier,  when  really  understood,  is  one  of 
the  most  astonishing  and  impressive  spectacles 
which  the  whole  face  of  Nature  exhibits.  Mr 
George  and  Rollo  explored  quite  a  number  of 
them  in  the  course  of  their  travels  in  Switzer- 
land; and  Rollo  would  have  liked  to  have 
explored  a  great  many  more. 

A  glacier  is  a  river  of  ice, — really  and  truly 
a  river  of  ice, — sometimes  two  or  three  miles 
wide,  and  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  long,  with 
many  branches  coming  into  it.  Its  bed  is  a 
steep  valley,  commencing  far  up  among  the 
mountains  in  a  region  of  everlasting  ice  and 
snow,  and  ending  in  some  warm  and  pleasant 
valley  far  below,  where  the  warm  sun  beats 
upon  the  terminus  of  it  and  melts  the  ice  away 
as  fast  as  it  comes  down.  It  flows  very  slowly, 
not  usually  more  than  an  inch  in  an  hour. 
The  warm  summer  sun  beams  upon  the  upper 
surface  of  it,  melting  it  slowly  away,  and  form- 
ing vast  fissures  and  clefts  in  it,  down  which 
you  can  look  to  the  bottom,  if  you  only  have 
courage  to  go  near  enough  to  the  slippery  edge. 
If  you  do  not  dare  to  do  this,  you  can  get  a 
large  stone   and  throw  it  in ;  and  then,  if  you 


148  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

stand  still  and  listen,  you  hear  it  thumping  and 
thundering  against  the  sides  of  the  crevasse 
until  it  gets  too  deep  to  be  any  longer  heard. 
You  cannot  hear  it  strike  the  bottom ;  for  it  is 
sometimes  seven  or  eight  hundred  feet  through 
the  thickness  of  the  glacier  to  the  ground 
below. 

The  surface  of  the  glacier  above  is  not 
smooth  and  glassy  like  the  ice  of  a  freshly- 
frozen  river  or  pond;  but  is  white,  like  a 
field  of  snow.  This  appearance  is  produced 
in  part  by  the  snow  which  falls  upon  the  glacier, 
and  in  part  by  the  melting  of  the  surface  of 
the  ice  by  the  sun.  From  this  latter  cause, 
too,  the  surface  of  the  glacier  is  covered,  in  a 
summer's  day,  with  streams  of  water,  which 
flow,  like  little  brooks,  in  long  and  winding 
channels  which  they  themselves  have  worn, 
until  at  length  they  reach  some  fissure,  or 
crevasse,  into  which  they  fall  and  disappear. 
The  waters  of  these  brooks — many  thousands 
in  all — form  a  large  stream,  which  flows  along 
on  the  surface  of  the  ground  under  the  glacier, 
and  comes  out  at  last,  in  a  wild,  and  roaring, 
and  turbid  torrent,  from  an  immense  archway 
in  the  ice  at  the  lower  end,  where  the  glacier 
terminates  among  the  green  fields  and  bloom- 
ing flowers  of  the  lower  valley. 

The  glaciers  are  formed  from  the  avalanches 
which  fall  into  the  upper  valleys  in  cases 
where  the  valleys  are  so  deep  and  narrow  and 
so  secluded  from  the  sun  that  the  snows  which 
slide  into  them  cannot  melt.  In  such  case,  the 
immense   accumulations   which    gather   there 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  149 

harden  and  solidify,  and  become  ice ;  and, 
what  is  very  astonishing,  the  whole  mass,  solid 
as  it  is,  moves  slowly  onward  down  the  valley, 
following  all  the  turns  and  indentations  of  its 
bed,  until  finally  it  comes  down  into  the  warm 
regions  of  the  lower  valleys,  where  the  end  of 
it  is  melted  away  by  the  sun  as  fast  as  the 
mass  behind  crowds  it  forward.  It  is  certainly 
very  astonishing  that  a  substance  so  solid  as 
ice  can  flow  in  this  way,  along  a  rocky  and  tor- 
tuous bed,  as  if  it  were  semi-fluid;  and  it  was 
a  long  time  before  men  would  believe  that  such 
a  thing  could  be  possible.  It  was,  however,  at 
length  proved  beyond  all  question  that  this 
motion  exists;  and  the  rate  of  it  in  different 
glaciers  at  different  periods  of  the  day  or  of 
the  year  has  been  accurately  measured. 

If  you  go  to  the  end  of  the  glacier,  where  it 
comes  out  into  the  lower  valley,  and  look  up  to 
the  icy  cliffs  which  form  the  termination  of  it, 
and  watch  there  for  a  few  minutes,  you  soon 
see  masses  of  ice  breaking  off  from  the  brink 
and  falling  down  with  a  thundering  sound  to 
the  rocks  below.  This  is  because  the  ice  a: 
the  extremity  is  all  the  time  pressed  forward 
by  the  mass  behind  it;  and,  as  it  comes  to  thrj 
brink,  it  breaks  over  and  falls  down.  This  i > 
one  evidence  that  the  glaciers  move. 

But  there  is  another  proof  that  the  ice  of  tho 
glaciers  is  continually  moving  onward  which  is 
still  more  direct  and  decisive.  Certain  philos- 
ophers, who  wished  to  ascertain  positively 
what  the  truth  was,  went  to  a  glacier,  and, 
selecting  a  large  rock  which  lay  upoji  the  sur> 


150  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

face  of  it  near  the  middle  of  the  ice,  they  made 
a  red  mark  with  paint  upon  the  rock,  and  two 
other  marks  on  the  rocks  which  formed  the 
shore  of  the  glacier.  They  made  these  three 
marks  exactly  in  a  line  with  each  other, 
expecting  that,  if  the  glacier  moved,  the  rock 
in  the  center  of  it  would  be  carried  forward, 
and  the  three  marks  would  be  no  longer  in  a 
line. 

This  proved  to  be  the  case.  In  a  very  short 
time  the  central  rock  was  found  to  have  moved 
forward  very  perceptibly.  This  was  several 
years  ago.  This  rock  is  still  on  the  glacier; 
and  the  red  mark  on  it,  as  well  as  those  on  the 
shores,  still  remains.  All  the  travelers  who 
visit  the  glacier  look  at  these  marks  and 
observe  how  the  great  rock  on  the  ice  moves 
forward.  It  is  now  at  a  long  distance  below 
the  place  where  it  was  when  its  position  was 
first  recorded. 

Then,  besides,  you  can  actually  hear  the 
glaciers  moving  when  you  stand  upon  them. 
It  is  sometimes  very  difficult  to  get  upon  them ; 
for  at  the  sides  where  the  ice  rubs  against  the 
rocks,  immense  chasms  and  fissures  are  formed, 
and  vast  blocks  both  of  rock  and  ice  are  tumbled 
confusedly  together  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
make  the  way  almost  impracticable.  When, 
however,  you  fairly  get  upon  the  ice,  if  you 
stand  still  a  moment  and  listen,  you  hear  a 
peculiar  groaning  sound  in  the  moraines.  To 
understand  this,  however,  I  must  first  explain 
what  a  moraine  it.  On  each  side  of  the  glacier, 
quite  near  t;he  shore,  there  is  usually  found  a> 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  151 

ridge  of  rocks  and  stones  extending  up  and 
down  the  glacier  for  the  whole  length  of  it,  as 
if  an  immense  wall  formed  of  blocks  of  granite 
of  prodigious  magnitude  had  been  built  by 
giants  to  fence  the  glacier  in,  and  had  after- 
ward been  shaken  down  by  an  earthquake,  so 
as  to  leave  only  a  confused  and  shapeless 
ridge  of  rocks  and  stones.  These  long  lines  of 
wall-like  ruins  may  be  traced  along  the  borders 
of  the  glacier  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach. 
They  lie  just  on  the  edge  of  the  ice,  and  follow 
all  the  bends  and  sinuosities  of  the  shore.  It 
is  a  mystery  how  they  are  formed.  All  that  is 
known,  or  rather  all  that  can  be  here  explained, 
is,  that  they  are  composed  of  the  rocks  which 
cleave  off  from  the  sides  of  the  precipices  and 
mountains  that  border  the  glacier,  and  that, 
when  they  have  fallen  down,  the  gradual  move- 
ment of  the  ice  draws  them  out  into  the  long, 
ridge-like  lines  in  which  they  now  appear. 
Some  of  these  moraines  are  of  colossal  magni- 
tude, being  in  several  places  a  hundred  feet 
broad  and  fifty  or  sixty  feet  high ;  and,  as  you 
cannot  get  upon  the  glacier  without  crossing 
them,  they  are  often  greatly  in  the  traveler's 
way.  In  fact  they  sometimes  form  a  barrier 
which  is  all  but  impassable. 

The  glacier  which  most  impressed  Mr. 
George  and  Rollo  with  its  magnitude  and 
grandeur  was  one  that  is  called  the  Sea  of  Ice. 
It  is  called  by  this  name  on  account  of  its 
extent.  Its  lower  extremity  comes  out  into 
the  valley  of  Chamouni,  the  beautiful  and 
world-renowned  valley,   which   lies  near  the 


152  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

foot  of  Mount  Blanc.  In  order  to  reach  this 
glacier,  the  young  gentlemen  took  horses  and 
guides  at  the  inn  at  Chamouni,  and  ascended 
for  about  two  hours  by  a  steep,  zigzag  path, 
which  led  from  the  valley  up  the  sides  of  the 
mountain  at  the  place  which  formed  the  angle 
between  the  great  valley  of  Chamouni  and  the 
side  valley  through  which  the  great  glacier 
came  down.  After  ascending  thus  for  six  or 
eight  miles,  they  came  out  upon  a  lofty  pro- 
motory,  from  which,  on  one  side,  they  could 
look  down  upon  the  wild  and  desolate  bed  of 
the  glacier,  and,  upon  the  other,  upon  the 
green,  and  fertile,  and  inexpressibly  beautiful 
vale  of  Chamouni,  with  the  pretty  little  village 
in  the  center  of  it.  This  place  is  called  Mon- 
tauvert.  There  is  a  small  inn  here,  built 
expressly  to  accommodate  travelers  who  wish 
to  come  up  and  go  out  upon  the  glacier. 

Although  the  traveler,  when  he  reaches 
Montauvert,  can  look  directly  down  upon  the 
glacier,  he  cannot  descend  to  it  there;  for, 
opposite  to  the  inn,  the  valley  of  ice  is  bor- 
dered by  cliffs  and  precipices  a  thousand  feet 
high.  It  is  necessary  to  follow  along  the  bank 
two  or  three  miles  among  stupendous  rocks 
and  under  towering  precipices,  until  at  length 
a  place  is  reached  where,  by  dint  of  much 
scrambling  and  a  great  deal  of  help  from  the 
guide,  it  is  possible  to  descend. 

Rollo  was  several  times  quite  afraid  in 
making  this  perilous  excursion.  In  some 
places  there  seemed  to  be  no  path  at  all ;  and 
it  was  necessary  for  him  to  make  his  way  by 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  153 

clinging  to  the  roughness  of  the  rocks  on  the 
steep,  sloping  side  of  the  mountain,  with  an 
immense  abyss  yawning  below.  There  was 
one  such  place  where  it  would  have  been 
impossible  for  any  one  not  accustomed  to 
mountain  climbing  to  have  got  along  without 
the  assistance  of  guides.  When  they  reached 
this  place,  one  guide  went  over  first,  and  then 
reached  out  his  hand  to  assist  Rollo.  The 
other  scrambled  down  upon  the  rocks  below, 
and  planted  his  pike  staff  in  a  crevice  of  the 
rock  in  order  to  make  a  support  for  a  foot.  By 
this  means,  first  Mr.  George,  and  then  Rollo, 
succeeded  in  getting  safely  over. 

Both  the  travelers  felt  greatly  relieved  when 
they  found  themselves  on  the  other  side  of  this 
dangerous  pass. 

In  coming  back,  however,  Rollo  had  the 
misfortune  to  lose  his  pike  staff  here.  The 
staff  slipped  out  of  his  hand  as  he  was  clinging 
to  the  rocks;  and,  after  sliding  down  five  or 
six  hundred  feet  to  the  brink  of  the  precipice, 
it  shot  over  and  fell  a  thousand  feet  to  the 
glacier  below,  where  it  entered  some  awful 
chasm,  or  abyss,  and  disappeared  forever. 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo  had  a  pretty  hard 
time  in  scrambling  over  the  moraine  when  they 
came  to  the  place  where  they  were  to  get  upon 
the  glacier.  When  they  were  fairly  upon  the 
glacier,  however,  they  could  walk  along  with- 
out any  difficulty.  It  was  like  walking  on  wet 
snow  in  a  warm  da,y  in  spring.  Little  brooks 
were  running  in  every  direction,  the  bright 
waters  sparkling  in  the  sun.    The  crevasses  at* 


154  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

tracted  the  attention  of  the  travelers  very 
strongly.  They  were  immense  fissures  four  or 
five  feet  wide,  and  extending  downward  per- 
pendicularly to  an  unfathomable  depth.  Rollo 
and  Mr.  George  amused  themselves  with  throw- 
ing stones  down.  There  were  plenty  of  stones 
to  be  found  on  the  glacier.  In  fact,  rocks  and 
stones  of  all  sizes  were  scattered  about  very 
profusely,  so  much  so  as  quite  to  excite  Mr. 
George's  astonishment. 

"I  supposed,"  said  he,  "that  the  top  of  the 
glacier  would  be  smooth  and  beautiful  ice." 

"I  did  not  think  anything  about  it,"  said 
Rollo. 

"I  imagined  it  to  be  smooth,  and  glassy,  and 
pure,"  said  Mr.  George;  "and,  instead  of  that, 
it  looks  like  a  field  of  old  snow  covered  with 
scattered  rocks  and  stones." 

Some  of  the  rocks  which  lay  upon  the  glacier 
were  very  large,  several  of  them  being  as  big 
as  houses.  It  was  remarkable,  too,  that  the 
largest  of  them,  instead  of  having  settled  down 
in  some  degree  into  the  ice  and  snow,  as  it 
might  have  been  expected  from  their  great 
weight  they  would  have  done,  were  raised  some- 
times many  feet  above  the  general  level  of  the 
glacier,  being  mounted  on  a  sort  of  pedestal  of 
ice.  The  reason  of  this  was,  that  when  the 
block  was  very  large,  so  large  that  the  beams 
of  the  sun  shining  upon  it  all  day  would  not 
warm  it  through,  then  the  ice  beneath  it  would 
be  protected  by  its  coolness,  while  the  surface 
of  the  glacier  around  would  be  gradually 
melted  and  wasted  away  by  the  beams  of  the 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  155 

sun  or  by  the  warm  rains  which  might  occa- 
sionally fall  upon  it.  Thus,  in  process  of  time, 
the  great  bowlder  block  rises,  as  it  were,  many 
feet  into  the  air,  and  remains  there  perched  on 
the  top  of  a  little  hillock,  like  a  mass  of  monu- 
mental marble  on  a  pedestal. 

In  excursions  on  the  glaciers  the  guides  takes 
a  rope  with  them,  and  sometimes  a  light  ladder. 
The  rope  is  for  various  purposes.  If  a  traveler 
were  to  fall  into  any  deep  pit,  or  crevasse,  or 
to  slip  down  some  steep  slope  or  precipice,  so 
that  he  could  not  get  up  again,  the  guides 
might  let  the  rope  down  to  him,  and  then  when 
he  had  fastened  it  around  his  waist  they  could 
draw  him  up,  when,  without  some  such  means 
of  rescuing  him,  he  would  be  wholly  lost.  In 
the  same  manner,  when  a  party  are  walking 
along  any  very  steep  and  slippery  place,  where 
if  any  one  were  to  fall  he  would  slide  down 
into  some  dreadful  abyss,  it  is  customary  for 
them  to  walk  in  a  line  with  the  rope  in  their 
hands,  each  one  taking  hold  of  it.  Thus,  if 
any  one  should  slip  a  little,  he  could  recover 
himself  by  means  of  the  rope,  when,  without 
such  a  support,  he  would  perhaps  have  fallen 
and  been  dashed  to  pieces.  Sometimes,  when 
the  place  is  very  dangerous  indeed,  so  that  sev- 
eral guides  are  required  to  each  traveler,  they 
tie  the  rope  round  the  traveler's  waist,  so  that 
he  can  have  his  hands  free  and  yet  avail  him- 
self of  the  support  of  the  rope  in  passing  along. 

The  ladder  is  used  for  scaling  low  precipices, 
either  of  rock  or  ice^  which  sometimes  come  in 
the  way,   and  which  could  not  be  surmounted. 


156  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

without  such  aid.  In  long  and  dangerous 
excursions,  especially  among  the  higher  Alps, 
one  of  the  guides  always  carries  a  ladder;  and 
there  are  frequent  occasions  where  it  would 
not  be  possible  to  go  on  without  using  it. 

A  hatchet,  too,  is  of  great  advantage  in 
climbing  among  the  immense  masses  of  ice 
which  are  found  at  great  elevations,  since,  by 
means  of  such  an  implement,  steps  may  be  cut 
in  the  ice  which  will  enable  the  explorer  to 
climb  up  an  ascent  too  long  to  be  reached  by  the 
ladder  and  too  steep  to  be  ascended  without  ar- 
tificial foot-holds.  In  ascending  Mont  Blanc  the 
traveler  sometimes  comes  to  a  precipice  of  ice, 
with  a  chasm  of  immense  depth,  and  four  or 
five  feet  wide,  at  the  bottom  of  it.  In  such  a 
case  the  foot  of  the  ladder  is  planted  on  the 
outside  of  the  chasm,  and  the  top  of  it  is  made 
to  rest  against  the  face  of  the  precipice,  ten  or 
fifteen  feet  perhaps  from  the  brink.  One  of  the 
boldest  and  most  skilful  of  the  guides  then 
ascends  the  ladder,  hatchet  in  hand,  and  there, 
suspended  as  he  is  over  the  yawning  gulf  be- 
low, he  begins  to  cut  steps  in  the  face  of  the 
precipice,  shaping  the  gaps  which  he  makes  in 
such  a  manner  that  he  can  cling  to  them  with 
his  hands  as  well  as  rest  upon  them  with  his 
feet.  He  thus  slowly  ascends  the  barrier,  cut- 
ting his  way  as  he  advances.  He  carries  the  end 
of  the  rope  up  with  him,  tied  around  his  waist; 
and  then  by  means  of  it,  when  he  has  reached 
the  summit,  he  aids  the  rest  of  the  party  in 
coming  up  to  him. 

Mr.  George  and  Rollo,  however,  did  not  ven- 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  15? 

ture  into  any  such  dangers  as  these.  They 
could  see  all  that  they  desired  of  the  stupend- 
ous magnificence  and  awful  desolation  of  these 
scenes  without  it.  They  spent  the  whole  of 
the  middle  of  the  day  on  the  glacier  or  on  the 
slopes  of  the  mountains  around  it ;  and  then  in 
the  afternoon  they  came  down  the  zigzag  path 
again  to  Chamouni,  very  tired  and  very 
hungry. 

To  be  tired  and  hungry,  however,  when  you 
come  home  at  night  to  a  Swiss  inn,  is  a  great 
source  of  enjoyment — on  account  of  the  admir- 
able arrangements  for  rest  and  refreshment 
which  you  are  sure  to  find  there. 


158  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


ROLLO    A    COURIER. 


Rollo  came  in  one  morning  to  the  hotel  at 
Megringen,  after  having  been  taking  a  walk  on 
the  banks  of  a  mighty  torrent  that  flows 
through  the  valley,  and  found  his  uncle  George 
studying  the  guide  book  and  map,  with  an 
appearance  of  perplexity.  Mr.  George  was 
seated  at  a  table  on  a  balcony,  which  opened 
from  the  dining-room  of  the  inn.  This  bal- 
cony was  very  large,  and  rooms  opened  from  it 
in  various  directions.  There  were  several 
tables  here,  with  seats  around  them,  where 
those  who  chose  to  do  so  could  take  their  break- 
fast or  their  dinner  in  the  open  air,  and  enjoy 
the  views  of  the  surrounding  mountains  and 
waterfalls  at  the  same  time.  Mr.  George  was 
seated  at  one  of  these  tables,  with  his  map  and 
his  guide  book  before  him. 

"Well,  uncle  George,"  said  Rollo,  "are  you 
planning  our  journey?" 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  George;  "and  I  am  very 
much  perplexed." 

"Why,  what  is  the  difficulty?"  asked  Rollo. 

"There  is  no  possibility  of  getting  out  of  this 
valley,"  said  Mr.  George,  "except  by  going  all 
the  way  back  to  Thun. — and  that  I  am  not  wil- 
ling to  do. " 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  159 

"Is  there  no  possible  way?"  asked  Rollo. 

"No,"  said  Mr.  George,  "unless  we  go  over 
the  Brunig  Pass  on  foot." 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,  "let  us  do  that." 

"We  might  possibly  do  that,"  continued  Mr. 
George,    still    looking  intently    at    his    map. 

"We  should  have  to  go  over  the  Brunig  to 
Lungern  on  foot,  with  a  horse  for  our  baggage. 
Then  we  should  have  to  take  a  car  from  Lun- 
gern down  the  valleys  to  the  shore  of  Lake 
Lucerne,  and  there  get  a  boat,  for  six  or  eight 
miles,  on  the  lake  to  the  town." 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,  joyfully,  "I  should  like 
that." 

Rollo  liked  the  idea  of  making  the  journey 
in  the  way  that  his  uncle  George  had  described, 
on  account  of  the  numerous  changes  which 
would  be  necessary  in  it,  in  respect  to  the 
modes  of  conveyance.  It  was  for  this  very 
reason  that  his  uncle  did  not  like  it. 

"Yes,  uncle  George,"  said  Rollo,  again. 
"That  will  be  an  excellent  way  to  go  to 
Lucerne.      Don't  you  think  it  will?" 

4 '  No, ' '  said  Mr.  George.  ' '  It  will  be  so  much 
trouble.  We  shall  have  three  different 
arrangements  to  make  for  conveyance,  in  one 
day." 

"No  matter  for  that,  uncle  George,"  said 
Rollo.  "I  will  do  all  that.  Let  me  be  the  cour- 
ier, uncle  George,  and  I'll  take  you  from  here 
to  Lucerne  without  your  having  the  least 
trouble.  I  will  make  all  the  arrangements,  so 
that  you  shall  have  nothing-  to  do.  You  may 
read,  if  you  choose,  the  whole  of  the  way." 


160  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

"How  will  you  find  out  what  to  do?"  asked 
Mr.  George. 

"O,  I'll  study  the  guide  book  carefully," 
replied  Rollo;  "and,  besides,  I'll  inquire  of 
the  landlord  here." 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  George,  hesitatingly,  I 
have  a  great  mind  to  try  it." 

"Only  you  must  pay  me,"  said  Rollo.  "I 
can't  be  courier  without  being  paid." 

"How  much  must  I  pay?"  asked  Mr. 
George. 

"Why,  about  a  quarter  of  a  dollar,"  replied 
Rollo. 

"It  is  worth  more  than  that,"  said  Mr. 
George.  "I  will  give  you  half  a  dollar  if  you 
make  all  the  arrangements  and  get  me  safe  to 
Lucerne  without  my  having  any  care  or  trouble. 
But  then  if  you  get  into  difficulty  in  any  case, 
and  have  to  appeal  to  me,  you  lose  your  whole 
pay.  If  you  carry  me  through,  I  give  you  half 
a  dollar.  If  you  don't  really  carry  me  through, 
you  have  nothing." 

Rollo  agreed  to  these  conditions,  and  Mr. 
George  proceeded  to  shut  up  the  map  and  the 
guide  book,  and  to  put  them  in  his  hands. 

"I  will  sit  down  here  now,"  said  Rollo,  "and 
study  the  map  and  the  guide  book  until  I  have 
learned  all  I  can  from  them,  and  then  I  will 
go  and  talk  with  the  landlord. ' ' 

Mr.  George  did  not  make  any  reply  to  this 
remark,  but  taking  out  a  small  portfolio,  con- 
taining writing  materials,  from  his  pocket,  he 
set  himself  at  work  writing  some  letters ;  hav- 
ing, apparently,  dismissed  the  whole  subject  of 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  161 

the  mode  of  crossing  the  Brunig  entirely  from 
his  mind. 

Rollo  took  his  seat  at  a  table  on  the  balcony 
in  a  corner  opposite  to  the  place  where  his 
uncle  was  writing,  and  spread  out  the  map 
before  him.  His  seat  commanded  a  very 
extended  and  magnificent  view.  In  the  fore- 
ground were  the  green  fields,  the  gardens,  and 
the  orchards  of  the  lower  valley.  Beyond, 
green  pasturages  were  seen  extending  over  the 
lower  declivities  of  the  mountains,  with  ham- 
lets perched  here  and  there  upon  the  shelving 
rocks,  and  winding  and  zigzag  roads  ascending 
from  one  elevation  to  another,  while  here  and 
there  prodigious  cataracts  and  cascades  were 
to  be  seen,  falling  down  hundreds  of  feet,  over 
perpendicular  precipices,  or  issuing  from 
frightful  chasms.  Rollo  stopped  occasionally 
to  gaze  upon  these  scenes ;  and  sometimes  he 
would  pause  to  put  a  spy  glass  to  his  eye,  in 
order  to  watch  the  progress  of  the  parties  of 
travelers  that  were  to  be  seen,  from  time  to 
time,  coming  down  along  a  winding  path  which 
descended  the  face  of  the  mountain  about  two 
or  three  miles  distant,  across  the  valley.  With 
the  exception  of  these  brief  interruptions,  Rollo 
continued  very  steadily  at  his  work;  and  in 
about  half  an  hour  he  shut  up  the  map,  and  put 
it  in  its  case,  saying  in  a  tones  of  great  appar- 
ent satisfaction, — 

"There!  I  understand  it  now  perfectly." 
He  was  in  hopes  that  his  uncle  would  have 
asked  him   some  questions  about  the  route,  in 
order   that  he  might  show  (how  fully  he  had 

11    Switzerland 


162  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

made  himself  acquainted  with  it;  but  Mr. 
George  said  nothing,  and  so  Rollo  went  away 
to  find  the  landlord. 

That  night,  just  before  bed  time,  Mr.  George 
asked  Rollo  what  time  he  was  going  to  set  out 
the  next  morning. 

"Immediately  after  breakfast,"  said  Rollo. 

"Are  we  going  to  ride  or  walk?"  asked  Mr. 
George. 

"We  are  going  to  walk  over  the  pass,"  said 
Rollo.  "The  road  is  too  steep  and  rocky  for 
horses.  But  then  we  are  going  to  have  a  horse 
to  carry  the  trunk. ' ' 

"Can  you  put  our  trunk  on  a  horse?"  asked 
Mr.  George. 

"Yes,"  replied  Rollo,  "the  guide  says  he 
can." 

"Very  well,"  said  Mr.  George,  "and  just  as 
5Boon  as  we  get  through  breakfast  I  am  going 
to  walk  on,  and  leave  you  to  pack  the  trunk  on 
the  horse,  and  come  along  when  you  are 
ready." 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,  "you  can  do  that." 

"Because,  you  see, "  continued  Mr.  George, 
"you  will  probably  have  various  difficulties 
and  delays  in  getting  packed  and  ready,  and  I 
don't  want  to  have  anything  to  do  with  it.  I 
wish  to  have  my  mind  entirely  free,  so  as  to 
enjoy  the  walk  and  the  scenery  without  any 
care  or  responsibility  whatever." 

Sometimes,  when  fathers  or  uncles  employ 
boys  to  do  any  work,  or  to  assume  any  charge, 
they  stand  by  and  help  them  all  the  time,  so 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  163 

that  the  real  labor  and  responsibility  do  not 
come  on  the  boy  after  all.  He  gets  paid  for 
the  work,  and  he  imagines  that  he  does  it — his 
father  or  his  uncle  allowing  him  to  imagine  so, 
for  the  sake  of  pleasing  him.  But  there  was 
no  such  child's  play  as  this  between  Mr.  George 
and  Rollo.  When  Rollo  proposed  to  under- 
take any  duty,  Mr.  George  always  considered 
well,  in  the  first  instance,  whether  it  was  a 
duty  that  he  was  really  competent  to  perform. 
If  it  was  not,  he  would  not  allow  him  to  under- 
take it.  If  it  was,  he  left  him  to  bear  the 
whole  burden  and  responsibility  of  it,  entirely 
alone. 

Rollo  understood  this  perfectly  well,  and  he 
liked  such  a  mode  of  management.  He  was, 
accordingly,  not  at  all  surprised  to  hear  his 
uncle  George  propose  to  leave  him  to  make  all 
the  arrangements  of  the  journey  alone. 

"You  see,"  said  Mr.  George,  "when  I  hire  a 
courier  I  expect  him  to  take  all  the  care  of  the 
journey  entirely  off  my  mind,  and  leave  me  to 
myself,  so  that  I  can  have  a  real  good  time. ' ' 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "that  is  right." 

And  here,  perhaps,  I  ought  to  explain  that 
what  is  called  a  courier,  in  the  vocabulary  of 
tourists  in  Europe,  is  a  traveling  servant,  who, 
when  he  is  emplo3^ed  by  any  party,  takes  the 
whole  charge  of  their  affairs,  and  makes  all 
necessary  arrangements,  so  that  they  can  travel 
without  any  care  or  concern.  He  engages 
the  conveyances  and  guides,  selects  the  inns, 
pays  the  bills,  takes  charge  of  the  baggage, 
and  does  everything,   in  short,  that  is  neces- 


164  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

Bary  to  secure  the  comfort  and  safety  of  the 
party  on  their  journey,  and  to  protect  them 
from  every  species  of  trouble  and  annoyance. 
He  has  himself  often  before  traveled  over  the 
countries  through  which  he  is  to  conduct  his 
party,  so  that  he  is  perfectly  familiar  with 
them  in  every  part,  and  he  knows  all  the  lan- 
guages that  it  is  necessary  to  speak  in  them. 
Thus  when  once  under  the  charge  of  such  a 
guide,  a  gentleman  journeying  in  Europe, 
eyen  if  he  has  his  whole  family  with  him,  need 
have  no  care  or  concern,  but  may  be  as  quiet 
and  as  much  at  his  ease,  all  the  time,  as  if  he 
were  riding  about  his  own  native  town  in  his 
private  carriage. 

The  next  morning,  after  breakfast,  Mr. 
George  rose  from  the  table,  and  prepared  to  set 
out  on  his  journey.  He  put  the  belt  of  his 
knapsack  over  his  shoulder,  and  took  his  alpen- 
stock in  his  hand. 

"Good-by,  Rollo, "  said  he.  "I  will  walk  on, 
taking  the  road  to  the  Brunig,  and  you  can 
come  when  you  get  ready.  You  will  overtake 
me  in  the  course  of  half  an  hour,  or  an  hour. " 

Rollo  accompanied  Mr.  George  to  the  door, 
and  then  wishing  him  a  pleasant  walk,  bade 
him  good-by. 

In  a  few  minutes  the  guide  came  around  the 
corner  of  the  house,  from  the  inn  3Tard,  leading 
the  horse.  He  stopped  to  water  the  horse  at 
a  fountain  in  the  street,  and  then  led  him  to 
the  door.  In  the  meantime  the  porter  of  the 
inn  had  brought  down  the  trunk,  and  then  the 
guide  proceeded  to  fasten  it  upon  the  saddle  of 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  165 

the  horse,  by  means  of  two  strong  straps.  The 
saddle  was  what  is  called  a  pack  saddle,  and 
was  made  expressly  to  receive  such  burdens. 

After  having  placed  the  trunk  and  secured  it 
firmly,  the  guide  put  on  the  umbrella,  and 
Mr.  George's  and  Rollo's  great-coats,  and  also 
Rollo's  knapsack.  These  things  made  quite  a 
pile  on  the  horse's  back.  The  burden  was 
increased,  too,  by  several  things  belonging  to 
the  guide  himself,  which  he  put  on  over  all  the 
rest,  such  as  a  great-coat  and  a  little  bag  of 
provisions. 

At  length,  when  all  was  ready,  Rollo  bade 
the  innkeeper  good-by,  and  set  out  on  his  jour- 
ney. The  guide  went  first,  driving  the  horse 
before  him,  and  Rollo  followed,  with  his 
alpenstock  in  his  hand. 

They  soon  passed  out  of  the  village,  and 
then  traveled  along  a  very  pleasant  road, 
which  skirted  the  foot  of  the  mountain  range, 
— all  the  time  gradually  ascending.  Rollo 
looked  out  well  before  him,  whenever  he  came 
to  a  straight  part  of  the  road,  in  hopes  of  see- 
ing his  uncle,  but  Mr.  George  was  nowhere  in 
view. 

Presently  he  came  to  a  place  where  there 
was  a  gate,  and  a  branch  path,  turning  off  from 
the  main  road,  directly  toward  the  mountain. 
Here  Rollo,  quite  to  his  relief  and  gratification, 
found  his  uncle.  Mr.  George  was  sitting  on 
a  stone  by  the  side  of  the  road,  reading. 

He  shut  his  book  when  he  saw  Rollo  and  the 
guide,  and  put  it  away  in  his  knapsack.  At 
the  same  time  he  rose  from  his  seat,  saying; 


166  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

"Well,  Rollo,  which  is  the  way?" 

"I  don't  know,"  said  Rollo. 

The  guide,  however,  settled  the  question  by 
taking  hold  of  the  horse's  bridle,  and  leading 
him  off  into  the  side  path.  The  two  travelers 
followed  him. 

The  path  led  through  a  very  romantic  and 
beautiful  scene  of  fields,  gardens,  and  groves, 
among  the  trees  of  which  were  here  and  there 
seen  glimpses  of  magnificent  precipices  and 
mountains  rising  very  near,  a  little  beyond 
them.  After  following  this  path  a  few  steps, 
two  girls  came  running  out  from  a  cottage. 
One  of  them  had  a  board  under  her  arm.  The 
other  had  nothing.  They  both  glanced  at  the 
travelers,  as  they  passed,  and  then  ran  for- 
ward along  the  road  before  them. 

"What  do  you  suppose  those  girls  are  going 
to  do?"  asked  Rollo. 

"I  can't    conceive,"     replied    Mr.     George. 

"Something  for  us  to  pay  for,  I'll  engage." 

"And  shall  you  pay  them?"  asked  Rollo. 

"No,"  said  Mr.  George.  "1  shall  not  pay 
them.  I  shall  leave  all  such  business  to  my 
courier." 

The  purpose  with  which  the  two  girls  had 
come  out  was  soon  made  to  appear ;  for  after 
running  along  before  the  party  of  travelers  for 
about  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  they  came  to  a  place 
where  two  shallow  but  rather  broad  brooks 
flowed  across  the  pathway.  When  Rollo  and 
Mr.  George  came  up  to  the  place  they  found 
that  the  girls  had  placed  boards  over  these 
Streams  of  water    for    bridges.     One  of    the 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  167 

boards  was  the  one  which  the  girl  had  brought 
along  with  her  under  her  arm.  The  other  girl, 
it  seems,  kept  her  board  under  the  bushes  neal 
the  place,  because  it  was  too  heavy  to  carrj 
back  and  forth  to  the  house.  It  was  their  cus* 
torn  to  watch  for  travelers  coming  along  the 
path,  and  then  to  run  on  before  them  and  lay 
these  bridges  over  the  brooks — expecting,  of 
course,  to  be  paid  for  it.  Rollo  gave  them 
each  a  small  piece  of  money,  and  then  he  and 
Mr.  George  went  on. 

Soon  the  road  began  to  ascend  the  side  of 
the  mountain  in  long  zigzags  and  windings. 
These  windings  presented  new  views  of  the 
valley  below  at  every  turn,  each  successive 
picture  being  more  extended  and  grand  than 
the  preceding. 

At  length,  after  ascending  some  thousands 
of  feet,  the  party  came  to  a  resting  place,  con- 
sisting of  a  seat  in  a  sort  of  bower,  which  had 
been  built  for  the  accommodation  of  travelers, 
at  a  turn  of  the  road  where  there  was  an  un- 
commonly magnificent  view.  Here  they 
stopped  to  rest,  while  the  guide,  leading  the 
horse  to  a  spring  at  the  road  side,  in  order  that 
he  might  have  a  drink,  sat  down  himself  on  a 
flat  stone  beside  him. 

"How  far  is  it  that  we  have  got  to  walk?" 
asked  Mr.  George. 

Rollo  looked  at  his  watch,  and  then  said, 
"We  have  got  to  walk  about  three  hours 
more." 

"And  what  shall  we  come  to  then?"  asked 
Mr.  George. 


168  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

"We  shall  come  down  on  the  other  side  of 
the  mountain,"  said  Rollo,  "to  a  little  village 
called  Lungern,  where  there  is  a  good  road; 
and  there  I  am  going  to  hire  a  carriage,  and  a 
man  to  drive  us  to  the  lake.  It  is  a  beautiful 
country  that  we  are  going  through,  and  the 
road  leads  along  the  shores  of  mountain  lakes. 
The  first  lake  is  up  very  high  among  the  moun- 
tains. The  next  is  a  great  deal  lower  down, 
and  we  have  to  go  down  a  long  way  by  a  zig- 
zag road,  till  we  get  to  it.  Then  we  go  along 
the  shore  of  this  second  lake,  through  several 
towns,  and  at  last  we  come  to  the  landing  on 
the  Lake  of  Lucerne.  There  I  shall  hire  a 
boat." 

"What  kind  of  a  boat?"asked  Mr.  George. 

"I  don't  know,"  said  Rollo. 

"How  do  you  know  that  there  will  be  any 
boat  there?"  asked  Mr.  George. 

"Because  the  guidebook  says  there  will, " 
replied  Rollo.  "They  always  have  boats  there 
to  take  people  that  come  along  this  road  to 
Lucerne. 

"Why  do  they  not  go  all  the  way  by  land?" 
asked  Mr.  George. 

"Because,"  said  Rollo,  "the  whole  country 
there  is  so  full  of  mountains  that  there  is  no 
place  for  a  road." 

Just  at  this  time  the  guide  got  up  from  his 
seat,  and  seemed  ready  to  set  out  upon  his 
journey;  and  so  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  rose 
and  went  on. 

After  ascending  about  an  hour  more, 
through  a  series  of  very  wild  and   romantic 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  169 

glens,  with  cottages  and  curious-looking  cha* 
lets  scattered  here  and  there  along  the  borders 
of  them,  wherever  the  ground  was  smooth  and 
green  enough  for  cattle  to  feed,  our  travelers 
came,  at  length,  to  the  summit  of  the  pass, 
where,  in  a  very  pleasant  and  sheltered  spot, 
surrounded  with  forest  trees,  there  stood  a  lit- 
tle inn.  On  arriving  at  this  place  the  guide 
proceeded  to  take  off  the  load  from  the  horse 
and  to  place  it  upon  a  sort  of  frame,  such  as  is 
used  in  those  countries  for  burdens  which  are 
to  be  carried  on  the  back  of  a  man. 

"What  is  he  going  to  do?"  asked  Mr.  George. 

"He  is  going  to  carry  the  baggage  the  rest 
of  the  way  himself,"  said  Rollo.  "You  see  it 
is  so  steep  and  rocky  from  here  down  to  Lun- 
gern  that  it  is  dreadful  hard  work  to  get  a 
horse  down  and  up  again;  especially  up.  So 
the  guide  leaves  the  horse  here,  and  is  going 
to  carry  the  baggage  down  himself  on  his  back. 
That  rack  that  he  is  fastening  the  trunk  upon 
goes  on  his  back.  Those  straps  in  front  of  it 
come  over  his  shoulders." 

"It  seems  to  me,"  said  Mr.  George,  "that 
that  is  a  monstrous  heavy  load  to  put  on  a 
man's  back,  to  go  down  a  place  which  is  so 
steep  and  rocky  that  a  horse  could  not  get 
along  over  it.  But  then  I  suppose  my  courier 
knows  what  he  is  about. " 

So  Mr.  George,  with  an  air  and  manner 
which  seemed  to  say,  It  is  none  of  my  con- 
cern, walked  up  a  flight  of  steps  which  led  to  a 
sort  of  elevated  porch  or  platform  before  the 
door  of  the  inn. 


170  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

For  a  moment  Rollo  himself  was  a  little  dis- 
concerted, not  knowing-  whether  it  would 
be  safe  for  a  man  to  go  down  a  steep  declivity 
with  such  a  burden  on  his  back ;  but  when  he 
reflected  that  this  was  the  arrangement  that 
the  guide  himself  had  proposed,  and  that  the 
guide  had,  doubtless,  done  the  same  thing  a 
hundred  times  before,  he  ceased  to  feel  any 
uneasiness,  and  following  Mr.  George  up  the 
steps,  he  took  a  seat  by  his  side,  at  a  little 
table,  which  was  placed  there  for  the  accom- 
modation of  travelers  stopping  at  the  inn  to 
rest. 

Rollo  and  his  uncle  spent  half  an  hour  at 
this  hotel.  For  refreshment  they  had  some 
very  excellent  and  rich  Alpine  milk,  which 
they  drank  from  very  tall  and  curiously-shaped 
tumblers.  They  also  amused  themselves  in 
looking  at  some  specimens  of  carved  work, 
such  as  models  of  Swiss  cottages — and  figures 
of  shepherds,  and  milkmaids  with  loads  of 
utensils  on  their  backs — and  groups  of  hunts- 
men, with  dogs  leaping  up  around  them — and 
chamois,  or  goats,  climbing  about  among  the 
rocks  and  mountains.  Rollo  had  bought  a 
pretty  good  supply  of  such  sculptures  before ; 
but  there  was  one  specimen  here  that  struck 
his  fancy  so  much  that  he  could  not  resist  the 
temptation  of  adding  it  to  his  collection,  espe- 
cially as  Mr.  George  approved  of  his  making 
the  purchase.  It  was  a  model  of  what  is  called 
a  chalet,  which  is  a  sort  of  hut  that  the  shep- 
herds occupy  in  the  upper  pasturages,  in  the 
summer,  where  they  go  to  tend  the  cows,  and 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  171 

to  make  butter  and  cheese.  The  little  chalet 
was  made  in  such  a  manner  that  the  roof 
would  lift  up  like  a  lid,  and  let  you  see  all 
there  was  within.  There  was  a  row  of  cows, 
with  little  calves  by  them,  in  stalls  on  one  side 
of  the  chalet,  and  on  the  other  side  tables  and 
benches,  with  pans  of  milk  and  tubs  upon 
them,  and  a  churn,  and  a  cheese  press,  and 
other  such  like  things.  There  was  a  bed,  too, 
for  the  shepherd,  in  a  sort  of  a  garret  above, 
just  big  enough  to  hold  it. 

In  about  half  an  hour  the  guide  seemed 
ready  to  proceed,  and  the  whole  party  set  out 
again  on  their  journey.  The  guide  went  be- 
fore, with  the  trunk  and  all  the  other  baggage 
piled  up  on  the  rack  behind  him.  He  had  a 
stout  staff  in  his  hand,  which  he  used  to  pre- 
vent himself  from  falling,  in  going  down  the 
steep  and  rocky  places.  Some  of  these  places 
were  very  steep  and  rocky,  indeed — so  much  so 
that  going  down  them  was  a  work  of  climbing 
rather  than  walking,  and  Rollo  himself  was 
sometimes  almost  afraid.  What  made  these 
places  the  more  frightful  was,  that  the  path  in 
descending  them  was  often  exceedingly  nar- 
row, and  was  bordered,  on  one  side,  by  a  per- 
pendicular wall  of  rock,  and  by  an  unfathom- 
able abyss  of  rocks  and  roaring  cataracts  on  the 
other.  To  behold  the  skill  and  dexterity  with 
which  the  guide  let  himself  down,  from  rock 
to  rock,  in  this  dreadful  defile,  loaded  as  he 
was,  excited  both  in  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  a 
continual  sentiment  of  wonder. 

At  length   the  steepest   part  of  the  descent 


172  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

was  accomplished,  and  then  the  road  led,  for 
a  mile,  through  a  green  and  pretty  valley, 
with  lofty  rocks  and  mountains  on  either  hand, 
and  chalets  and  pretty  cottages  at  various  dis- 
tances along  the  roadside.  At  one  place,  in  a 
very  romantic  and  delightful  spot,  they  came 
to  a  small  chapel.  It  had  been  built  there  to 
commemorate  some  remarkable  event,  and  to 
afford  a  resting-place  for  travelers.  The  door 
of  this  chapel  was  fastened,  but  Rollo  could 
look  in  through  a  window  and  see  the  altar, 
and  the  crucifix,  and  the  tall  candles,  within. 
He  and  Mr.  George  sat  down,  too,  on  the 
stone  step  of  the  chapel  for  a  little  while,  to 
rest,  and  to  enjoy  the  view.  "While  they  were 
there  another  traveler  came  by,  ascending 
from  Lungern,  and  he  stopped  to  rest  there, 
too.  He  was  lame,  and  seemed  to  be  poor. 
He  had  a  pack  on  his  back.  Mr.  George  talked 
with  this  man  in  French  while  they  sat  to- 
gether on  the  steps  of  the  chapel,  and  when  he 
went  away  Mr.  George  gave  him  a  little 
money. 

After  leaving  the  chapel  the  travelers  con- 
tinued their  descent,  the  valley  opening  before 
them,  more  and  more  as  they  proceeded,  until, 
at  length,  the  village  of  Lungern  came  in 
sight,  far  below  them,  at  the  head  of  a  little 
lake. 

"There!"  said  Rollo,  as  soon  as  the  village 
came  in  sight  "That  is  Lungern.  That  is 
the  place  where  the  carriage  road  begins." 

"I  am  glad  of  that,"  said  Mr.  George.  "A 
ride  in  a   carriage  will  be  very  pleasant  after 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  173 

all  this  scrambling  over  the  mountains — that 
is,  provided  you  get  a  good  carriage." 

When,  at  length,  the  party  reached  the  inn, 
the  guide  set  down  his  load  on  a  bench  at  the 
door  of  it,  and,  smiling,  seemed  quite  pleased 
to  be  rid  of  the  heavy  burden. 

"Are  we  going  to  take  dinner  here?"  said 
Mr.  George  to  Rollo. 

"No,  sir,"  said  Rollo.  "At  least,  I  don't 
know.     We'll  see. " 

The  landlord  of  the  inn  met  the  travelers  at 
the  door,  and  conducted  them  up  a  flight  of 
stone  stairs,  and  thence  into  a  room  where  sev- 
eral tables  were  set,  and  different  parties  of 
travelers  were  taking  refreshments.  The 
landlord,  after  showing  them  into  this  room, 
went  downstairs  again  to  attend  to  other  trav- 
elers. Mr.  George  and  Rollo  walked  into  the 
room.  After  looking  about  the  room  a  mo- 
ment, however,  Rollo  said  he  must  go  down 
and  see  about  a  carriage. 

"Wait  here  a  few  minutes,  uncle  George," 
said  he,  "while  I  go  and  engage  a  carriage, 
and  then  I  will  come  back." 

So  saying,  Rollo  went  away,  and  Mr.  George 
took  his  seat  by  a  window. 

Presently  the  waiter  came  to  Mr.  George, 
and  asked  him,  in  French,  if  he  wished  for  any 
refreshment. 

"I  don't  know,"  said  Mr.  George.  "I  will 
wait  till  the  boy  comes  back,  and  then  we'll 
see." 

In  a  short  time  Rollo  came  back. 


174  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

"The  carriage  will  be  ready  in  twenty  min- 
utes," said  he. 

"Very  well,"  said  Mr.  George.  "And  the 
waiter  wants  to  know  whether  we  are  going  to 
have  anything  to  eat." 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "we  are  going  to  have  a 
luncheon. " 

Rollo  then  went  to  the  waiter,  and  said,  in 
French,  "Bread,  butter,  coffee,  and  strawber- 
ries, for  two."  "Very  well,  sir,"  said  the 
waiter,  and  he  immediately  went  away  to  pre- 
pare what  Rollo  had  ordered. 

In  due  time  the  refreshment  was  read}'',  and 
Mr.  George  and  Rollo  sat  down  to  the  table, 
with  great  appetites.  Everything  was  very 
nice.  The  strawberries,  in  particular,  though 
very  small  in  size,  as  the  Alpine  strawberries 
always  are,  were  very  abundant  in  quantity, 
and  delicious  in  flavor.  There  was  also  plenty 
of  rich  cream  to  eat  them  with.  When,  at 
length,  the  travelers  had  finished  eating  their 
luncheon,  the  landlord  came  to  say  that  the 
carriage  was  ready.  So  Rollo  paid  the  bill, 
and  then  he  and  Mr.  George  went  down  to  the 
door.  Here  they  found  a  very  pretty  chaise, 
with  a  seat  in  front  for  the  driver,  all  ready  for 
them.  The  trunk  and  all  the  other  baggage 
were  strapped  securely  on  behind.  Mr. 
George  and  Rollo  got  in.  The  top  of  the 
chaise  was  down,  so  that  the  view  was  unob- 
structed on  every  side. 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,  "do  you  think  it  is  a 
good  carriage?" 

"A  most  excellent  one,"  said  Mr.  George. 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  175 

"We  shall  have  a  delightful  ride,  I  am  sure." 

Mr.  George  was  not  disappointed  in  his  an- 
ticipations of  a  delightful  ride.  The  day  was 
very  pleasant,  and  the  scenery  of  the  country 
through  which  they  had  to  pass  was  as  roman- 
tic and  beautiful  as  could  be  imagined.  The 
road  descended  rapidly,  from  valley  to  valley, 
sometimes  by  sharp  zigzags,  and  sometimes 
by  long  and  graceful  meanderings,  presenting 
at  every  turn  some  new  and  charming  view. 
There  were  green  valleys,  and  shady  dells, 
and  foaming  cascades,  and  dense  forests,  and 
glassy  lakes,  and  towering  above  the  whole,  on 
either  side,  were  vast  mountain  slopes,  covered 
with  forests,  and  ranges  of  precipitous  rocks, 
their  summits  shooting  upward,  in  pinnacles, 
to  the  very  clouds. 

After  journeying  on  in  this  manner  for  some 
hours  the  carriage  arrived  at  an  inn  on  the 
shores  of  the  Lake  of  Lucerne.  There  was  a 
landing  there,  and  a  number  of  boats,  drawn 
up  near  a  little  pier. 

"Yes,"  exclaimed  Rollo,  when  he  saw  the 
boats,  "this  is  the  place.  The  name  of  it  is 
Alpnach.  We  are  to  go  the  rest  of  the  way  by 
water. ' ' 

"That  will  be  very  pleasant,"  said  Mr. 
George,  as  he  got  out  of  the  carriage.  "I  shall 
like  a  row  on  the  lake  very  much.  I  will  go 
directly  down  to  the  landing,  and  you  can  come 
when  you  get  ready." 

So  Mr.  George  walked  on  down  to  the  pier, 
leaving  Rollo  to  perform  his  duties  as  a 
courier,  according  to  his  own  discretion. 


176  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

Rollo  first  paid  the  driver  of  the  carriage 
what  was  due  to  him,  according  to  the  agree- 
ment that  he  had  made  with  the  Lungern  land- 
lord, and  then  explained  to  the  Alpnach  land- 
lord, in  as  good  French  as  he  could  command, 
that  he  wanted  a  boat,  to  take  him  and  the 
gentleman  who  was  traveling  with  him  to  Lu- 
cerne, and  asked  what  the  price  would  be. 
The  landlord  named  the  regular  price,  and 
Rollo  engaged  the  boat.  The  landlord  then 
sent  for  a  boatman.  In  a  few  minutes  the 
boatman  was  seen  coming.  He  was  followed 
by  two  rather  pretty-looking  peasant  girls, 
each  bringing  an  oar  on  her  shoulder.  These 
two  girls  were  the  boatman's  daughters. 
They  were  going  with  their  father  in  the  boat, 
to  help  him  row. 

The  boatman  took  up  the  trunk,  and  the 
girls  the  other  parcels  of  baggage,  and  so  car- 
ried the  whole,  together  with  the  oars,  down 
to  the  boat.  Rollo  followed  them,  and  the 
whole  party  immediately  embarked.  It  was  a 
bright  and  sunny  day,  though  there  were  some 
dark  and  heavy  clouds  in  the  western  sky. 
The  water  of  the  lake  was  very  smooth,  and 
it  reflected  the  mountains  and  the  skies  in  a 
very  beautiful  manner.  Mr.  George  and  Rollo 
took  their  seats  in  the  boat,  under  an  awning 
that  was  spread  over  a  frame  in  the  central 
portion  of  it.  This  awning  sheltered  them 
from  the  sun,  while  it  did  not  intercept  their 
view.  The  man  and  the  girls  took  each  of 
them  an  oar,  standing  up,  however,  to  row, 
and  pushing  the  oar  before  them,  instead  of 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  17? 

pulling  it,  according  to  our  fashion.  Thus  they 
commenced  the  voyage. 

Everything  went  on  very  pleasantly  for  an 
hour,  only,  as  the  boatman  and  his  daughters 
could  speak  no  language  but  German,  Mr. 
George  and  Rollo  could  have  no  conversation 
with  them.  But  they  could  talk  with  each 
other,  and  they  had  a  very  pleasant  time.  At 
length,  however,  the  clouds  which  had 
appeared  in  the  western  sky  rose  higher  and 
higher,  and  grew  blacker  and  blacker,  and, 
finally,  low,  rumbling  peals  of  thunder  began 
to  be  heard.  The  boatman  talked  with  his 
daughters,  pointing  to  the  clouds,  and  then 
said  something  to  Mr.  George  in  German,  but 
neither  Mr.  George  nor  Rollo  could  under- 
stand it.  They  soon  found,  however,  that  the 
boat  was  turned  toward  the  shore.  They 
were  very  glad  of  this,  for  Rollo  said  that  he 
had  read  in  the  guide  book  that  the  Swiss  lakes 
were  subject  to  very  violent  tempests,  such  as 
it  would  be  quite  dangerous  to  encounter  fai 
from  the  shore.  Rollo  said,  moreover,  that 
the  boatmen  were  very  vigilant  in  watching  for 
the  approach  of  these  storms,  and  that  they 
would  always  at  once  make  the  best  of  their 
way  to  the  land  whenever  they  saw  one  com- 
ing on. 

In  this  instance  the  wind  began  to  blow  and 
the  rain  to  fall,  before  the  boat  reached  the 
shore.  Rollo  and  Mr.  George  were  sheltered 
by  the  awning,  but  the  boatman  and  the  two 
girls  got  very  wet.  They,  however,  continued 
to  work  hard   at  the  oars,  and  at  length  they 

12    Switzerla;  id 


178  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

reached  the  shore.  The  place  where  they 
landed  was  in  a  cove  formed  by  a  point  of 
land,  where  there  was  a  little  inn  near  the 
water.  As  soon  as  the  boat  reached  the  shore 
Mr.  George  and  Rollo  leaped  out  of  it,  and 
spreading  their  umbrella  they  ran  up  to  the 
inn. 

They  waited  here  nearly  an  hour.  They  sat 
on  a  piazza  in  front  of  the  inn,  listening  to  the 
sound  of  the  thunder  and  of  the  wind,  and 
watching  the  drops  of  rain  falling  on  the  water. 
At  length  the  wind  subsided,  the  rain  gradu- 
ally ceased,  and  the  sun  came  out  bright  and 
beaming  as  ever.  The  party  then  got  into  the 
boat,  and  the  boatman  pushed  off  from  the 
shore ;  and  in  an  hour  more  they  all  landed 
safely  on  the  quay  at  Lucerne,  very  near  to  a 
magnificent  hotel. 

Our  two  travelers  were  soon  comfortably 
seated  at  a  table  in  the  dining  room  of  the 
hotel,  before  an  excellent  dinner,  which  Rollo 
had  ordered.  Mr.  George  told  Rollo,  as  they 
took  their  seats  at  the  table,  that  he  had  per- 
formed his  duty  as  a  courier  in  a  very  satisfac- 
tory manner,  and  had  fully  earned  his  pay. 


ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND.  179 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


CONCLUSION. 


It  is  not  possible  to  describe  in  such  a  vol- 
ume as  this  more  than  a  small  part  of  the  ex- 
cursions which  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  made  or 
the  adventures  which  they  met  with  in  the 
course  of  their  tour  in  Switzerland.  They  re- 
mained in  the  country  of  the  Alps  more  than  a 
fortnight;  and  they  enjoyed,  as  Rollo  said, 
every  moment  of  the  time.  There  was  no  end 
to  the  cascades  and  waterfalls,  the  ice  and 
snow-clad  summits,  the  glaciers,  the  romantic 
zigzag  paths  up  the  mountain  sides,  the  pic- 
turesque hamlets  and  cottages,  and  the  groups 
of  peasants  toiling  in  the  fields  or  tending 
flocks  and  herds  in  the  higher  pasturages. 
Rollo's  heart  was  filled  all  the  time  that  he  re- 
mained among  these  scenes  with  never-ceasing 
wonder  and  delight.  The  inns  pleased  him, 
too,  as  much  perhaps  as  anything  else ;  for  the 
climbing  of  mountains  and  the  long  excursions 
on  foot  gave  him  a  most  excellent  appetite ; 
and  at  the  inns  they  always  found  such  nice 
breakfasts,  dinners,  and  suppers  every  day  that 
Rollo  was  never  tired  of  praising  them. 

Rollo  found  the  cost,  too,  of  traveling  in 
Switzerland  much  less  than  he  had  expected. 
He  did  not  expend  nearly  all  the  allowance 


180  ROLLO  IN  SWITZERLAND. 

which  his  father  had  granted  him.  When  he 
came  to  settle  up  his  accounts,  after  he  had 
got  back  to  Paris,  he  found  that  he  had  saved 
about  seventy-five  francs,  which  made  nearly 
fifteen  dollars;  and  this  sum  he  accordingly 
added  to  his  capital — for  that  was  the  name 
by  which  he  was  accustomed  to  designate  the 
stock  of  funds  which  he  had  gradually  accumu- 
lated and  reserved. 

Just  before  Mr.  George  and  Rollo  left 
Switzerland,  on  their  return  to  Paris,  they 
received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Holiday,  who  was 
still  in  Paris,  in  consequence  of  which  they  con- 
cluded to  make  a  short  tour  on  the  Rhine  on 
their  way  to  France.  The  adventures  which 
they  met  with  on  this  tour  will  form  the  sub- 
iect  of  another  volume  of  this  series. 


